Human rights and wrongs
By Randeep and Amar Nath Wadehra

HUMAN rights have their roots in antiquity. The ancient Jews had laws protecting the rights even of foreign slaves.Similarly, the Hindu scriptures ordain looking after the weak and the vulnerable, giving evidence that sensitivity for their rights has its roots in the ancient times. There is an episode in the Mahabharata wherein Narada asks Yudhishtra: "Do you treat as father, your subjects who are blind, dumb, lame, deformed, friendless and also those who have renounced the world?" Kings were morally bound to provide for the war-disabled and their dependants. This becomes clear fromNarada’s next query:"Do you maintain the women of those who died for you on the battlefield? And do you also maintain those who are wounded on the battlefield while fighting for you?"

Baudhayana’s laws decreed, "...(while) granting food, clothing and shelter the kings shall support those who are incapable of transacting legal business, viz, the blind, idiots, those immersed in vice, the incurably diseased, those who neglect their duties and occupations and so on."

In 1807 Great Britain abolished slave traffic in all its colonies.Later on, the 1885 Berlin Conference forbade trading in slaves. In recent times, the 1948 Universal Declaration of HumanRights, the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms are important landmarks in providing recognition to the "inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" that provides a firm foundation for "freedom, justice and peace in the world."

The poor face the brunt of inequities inbuilt in our system.Along with them the most vulnerable lot are women, the aged, children and the disabled.For them, life is like a steeplechase with unexpected and almost insuperable obstacles that bedevil their exertions for a respectable life. In fact, the stakes involved are much higher — one’s survival depends upon how the odds are tackled.

The English Poor Law of 1601 and the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834 are considered milestones in ensuring the rights of the destitute and the disabled.These laws generated public accountability for the care of the disabled persons. The 1889 Royal Commission Report strongly recommended that the state should be made responsible for the welfare of the physically and mentally challenged persons. Our laws, as well as the constitutional provisions, draw fromBritish jurisprudence.

We still have more than 400 million rural poor. Together with urban poor the total would be well over 50 per cent of the population. The SC/ST segment forms the largest chunk of destitutes, with 44.7 per cent of the SCs and 52.6 per cent of the STs living below the poverty line. Since Independence the tribal indebtedness has increased by 30 per cent. There are still more than three million bonded labourers in the world’s largest democracy!

The aged are increasingly getting marginalised. As they are no more economically productive the elderly are considered a burden by their families. Their dependence on the young brings a number of maladjustments. The problem becomes all the more complex as the family and community ties are weakening.Along with financial aspects, sociological and psychological factors, too, affect them.Since a person’s status depends upon his role and the authority he holds, in old age there is a marked decline in the same.With advancing age their faculties are not as sharp. Their advice is ignored, and they are generally neglected. Sadly, it is easily forgotten that the old are the repositories of knowledge, experience and wisdom that can be applied to modern situations albeit with modifications.Why not benefit from them?

Cruelty — both physical and mental — towards the elderly is on the rise. Unfortunately there is no legislation protecting their rights in India. The increase in their population over the years has made it all the more imperative for our society to cater to their needs. You can well imagine the plight of a person who is old, poor and handicapped. Could there be a worse fate in our so-called welfare state?

Children are among the most vulnerable sections of community.When traditional social structures were strong they were considered the joint responsibility of the entire village community, and enjoyed emotional security in joint families. By and large, they faced less violence, though the plight of girls was certainly pathetic even in those times. With the ‘nuclear’ family system in vogue, insecurity and domestic violence is on the rise. Unsafe within the four walls of their homes, children are menaced outside too.Abductions, child prostitution and child labour are rampant. According to a United Nations report, in the past decade, war and local conflicts have affected more than 100 million children. used as gun fodder — a million died and another million maimed — a vast majority of them are suffering untold miseries in refugee camps.

Since the former well-knit communal structure has not been replaced with a viable alternative, and with materialistic pursuits reaching dangerously amoral levels, exposure to brutality and savagery at different levels of polity is causing psychiatric problems for our future citizens. In India, we celebrate Children’s Day every year on November 14. Unfortunately, over a period of time it has degenerated into yuppie syndrome. To make the day more meaningful the focus should shift to neglected sections of the child population.Special legislations for their rights’ protection, effective implementation and monitoring mechanisms are sorely needed.

Chandrani Biswas, in her well researched book, "Women and War," observes. "The images of women in various anthropological, historical and cultural male-centred studies essentially project them as non-actors in history. Their activities are invariably confined to private space and they have rarely been shown as playing pivotal roles in social and historical development."

Kate Millet avers in Sexual Politics,"...As both the primitive and the civilised worlds are male worlds, the ideas which shaped culture in regard to the female were also of male design. The image of women as we know it is an image created by men and fashioned to suit their needs. These needs spring from the fear of the "otherness" of woman. Yet this notion itself presupposes that patriarchy has already been established....Whatever its origin, the function of the male’s sexual antipathy is to provide a means of control over a subordinate group and a rationale which justifies the inferior of those in lower order explaining the oppression of their lives."

According to the Action for Welfare and Awakening in Rural Environment (AWARE), the SC/ST women are disabled thrice over, viz, as women, as rural persons and Scheduled Castes and tribes. Overall, women constitute 70 per cent of the world’s poor. They produce 50 per cent of the food but earn only 10 per cent of the income. In India out of about 428 million illiterates 275 million are women.

Reports paint a frightening picture of Indian women. The number of females per thousand males has come down from 1072 in 1901 to 927 in 1991. Worse, in some states like Rajasthan and Bihar the ratio is a horrendous 850 with certain communities having 600 females per thousand! According to the study, out of 8000 foetus abortions 7999 were females. Surprisingly, the rate of female infanticide in India has increased in direct proportion to our strides towards modernisation. Is there a cryptic lesson here? Perhaps. Materialistic pursuits are dehumanising us.Son means addition to wealth through dowry intake while daughter is a paraya dhan denoting heavy expenditure. This mindset has yet to change.

Incidence of disease and disability dates back to the hoary past. Evidence of bone tumour in the Java Man, bone tuberculosis in the Stone Age, arthritis and pyorrhea in Egyptian mummies are some of the instances. Babylonian pillar belonging to Hammurabi’s reign has medical rules inscribed on it. The Ebers Papyrus, arguably the oldest comprehensive medical science work, was authored around 1500 BC. The thirteenth chapter of Leviticus with attempts by Moses to check gonorrhoea.

General attitudes towards the disabled were similar in the occidental and oriental cultures. During Middle Ages many tribes used to discard or kill their disabled offspring. According to C. Hafter, in the Middle Ages in Europe, deformed infants were looked upon as changelings, i.e. evil spirits masquerading as humans.Untold cruelties were heaped on such unfortunate souls. Disease and disability became metaphors for evil and sin.Plato dwells upon in his Republic of Laws.

The tradition of the grotesque, in the Middle Ages, associated disability with the court jester and the Christian fool. It became an instrument to ridicule the vanities of the rich and the powerful. In ancient times even Socrates was not spared, as depicted by the Silenus, a hollow figurine, bearing the image of ugly satyr — modelled on Socrates — on the outside, and containing a beautiful dancing God’s figure within.

In India, it is generally believed that the doctrine of Karma links retribution with past sins and flouting of religious and natural laws. However, Dr Radhakrishnan interprets the Karmic theory differently: "Karma is not pre-ordained destiny, precluding free will." He believes that man can shape his own destiny by rising above "fixed tendencies and natural dispositions" inherited from the past Karma. In fact man is duty-bound to, "make the lower sensuous self yield to the higher rational self. The senses are a bar to morality and religion..."

According to Dr GN Karna, himself a polio victim, and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Disability Affairs: "Even today, there is a tendency to presume sadness on the part of the disabled which leads to inflicting upon them unsolicited and unwarranted pity. The non-disabled persons focus so much on their object’s disabilities that they virtually treat him as a thing sans emotions and aspirations...."

It is not uncommon to find the disabled become the butt of jokes both in person and on the electronic and print media. Disability based humour is so rampant in our society that it is considered normal! One really wonders whether commemoration such as the Day of the Disabled held annually on December 3 have any worth. How does it help in getting basic necessities of life for the disabled? Worse, there is perpetual trampling of his rights just because he is easy game.

Gunnar Myrdal points out in his Asian Drama: An Enquiry into the Poverty of Nations: "To every individual, health is an important element of his well-being...Indeed the enjoyment of health has come to take place among the ‘human rights’...."

When one’s rights are infringed one seeks justice from institutions within the polity. It is generally believed that in a democracy it is easier to seek and obtain protection than in any other form of governance.What if the state institutions fail an individual? In such a situation the media’s role becomes crucial.

In common perception human rights are a state versus the individual" affair.Surely, an individual needs protection against the state’s indifference, excesses and atrocities, especially in India where a truly enlightened polity has yet to evolve. The media has done a commendable job in unearthing and highlighting violation of human rights by the Indian state, from time to time.However, there is a flip side too.What about the victims of organised terror by anti-national set-ups?

It is rare for one to notice a news item highlighting injustices done by corporate employers — both in the public as well as the private sectors — to their employees. Our courts are clogged with lawsuits pleading redressal of wrongs perpetrated on individual employees. The same goes for protection of the individual’s right to clean environment, which is being constantly polluted by the ever-expanding industrial behemoths. Here too human rights are involved — the right to a dignified life, to a healthy existence, to an environment that allows for an unfettered health and happiness to the common man.

Media often highlights the plight of our society’s vulnerable segments.Human-interest stories crop up in assorted publications. Yet, it somehow fails to ensure that an issue reaches its logical conclusion and the victims get justice. Moreover, an element of didacticism creeps in while publishing ‘success stories’ involving the handicapped. However, on closer scrutiny one invariably discovers that the so-called success stories have a significant elements of suppressed truths. For example, a disabled person who has become successful in business already had enough money and resources at his disposal to run it. He does not start from scratch and enjoys filial or corporate support. Generally the message, albeit an unintended one, is that only the rich and the well connected among the handicapped can succeed. This is heartbreaking for those who are gifted, have ability and the will to work but don’t have the right connections or clout to be successful.

The plight of the under-privileged can hardly be imagined, let alone understood by the upper-class-oriented media. Occasionally, an issue is devoted to highlight the rural have-nots’ woes. But the overall scenario is dismal. Columns are lavishly devoted to what has become the staple of our yuppies...film gossip, fashion shows, star nites et al. This is typical of our mainstream media, the glitterati’s inanities invariably gain precedence over profound social and national issues.

There are several aspects of media’s working that need urgent attention — the most important being the need for perseverance while dealing with redressal of human rights violations. More extensive and insightful investigations will go a long way in making our society a healthy and vibrant organism, facilitating attitudinal metamorphosis in the polity’s upper echelons. Only fearless and impartial Press can help usher in a truly egalitarian society.