Staff crunch forced SHRC to rely on media

From dog bites to bonded laboures to naxal problems, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) deals with all kinds of issues.

 “It was indeed a challenging job,” said former SHRC chairman Justice S R Nayak, who recently completed his five year tenure as the first head of the commission.

 Although the institution is not as popular as the Lokayukta or State Women’s Commission, the SHRC in last five years booked a whooping 36,000 cases, many of them being suo moto cases based on media reports.

 “In the absence of our own staff across the state, we had to rely on media reports to take cognizance of human rights violations,” he said.

 While many cases were disposed of others are being investigated.

 The state government has now initiated a process to appoint new chairman and members of the commission.

 Justice Nayak said that the new team at the commission has a daunting task ahead of them.

 Major challenges that SHRC faces include bonded labourers, child labourers, manual scavengers, protecting women and people from marginalised sections of society, he said.

 He added that there was a direct link between corruption and human rights violations.

 “Corruption is the worst enemy of human rights.

 Good governance will end corruption and that in turn will protect human rights.

 As long as corruption is rampant human rights violations will continue,” said Nayak, who during his tenure visited many districts to create awareness about human rights.

 According to the former chairperson of SHRC, other than creating awareness and establishing credibility, the new team also has to deal with the government that hardly acts on the State Human Right Commission’s reports.

 “The government is expected to act on the recommendations sent by the Commission, but in reality it does so in only some cases,” he said.

 Justice Nayak said that he had felt helpless after the recent Mangalore home stay attack incident.

 “I felt helpless as my tenure had ended by that time.

 Had I been the head of the SHRC, I would have visited the place and would have given an impartial report on the incident,” he said