NHRC questions AFSPA, finds fault with UPA schemes

In what could strengthen the case of those seeking lifting of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from parts of J&K and insurgency-hit North-East, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said the AFSPA “remains in force in Jammu & Kashmir and the North-Eastern States, conferring an impunity that often leads to the violation of human rights”. This (continuation of AFSPA), a report prepared by the NHRC which is soon going to be submitted in the UN Human Rights Council says, despite the fact that India’s 2011 report on the Optional Protocol itself states that the country does not face “either international or non-international armed conflict situations”.

The report also questions the success of the flagship programmes of the UPA government. “A massive public distribution system has not assured the right to food because malnutrition is endemic. The National Advisory Council has recommended that legal entitlements to subsidised foodgrains be extended to at least 75 per cent of the population. This is not acceptable to the government, which sets arbitrary ceilings on the numbers who can be declared as being below the poverty line. The official estimate that 27.5 per cent of the population was below the poverty line in 2004-05 grossly understates the incidence of poverty. The expert committee set up by the Planning Commission puts the figure at 37.2 per cent. Other committees set up by ministries peg it even higher. Over 90 per cent of the workforce is in the unorganised sector, has no access to social security, is particularly vulnerable in the cities, and is therefore driven into permanent debt, often leading to conditions of bonded labour,” it says.

On the much-touted National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which guaranteed 100 days of work a year to any rural household that needed it, the report says, “Government data showed that 56 million households applied, 55 million were given work but on an average received half the wages guaranteed. The Scheme has not, therefore, made enough of an impact, very large sums of money have been siphoned off, and it does not provide long-term employment or build permanent assets.”

The report is also critical of the manner in which the issue of human rights of citizens in handled, especially by civil servants and law enforcement agencies.

It says that the SC and ST communities fall prey to rights abuse despite laws to protect them because of the indifference of public servants.