CHANGING HUMAN RIGHTS TREND IN INDIA

NHRC – Jharkhand Human Rights Conference President Manoj Mishra, filed a complaint in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC); against the firing by security guards at the Tata Steel Works. Mishra has demanded stringent action against the security personnel responsible for the firing and Rs 10 lakh compensation to each injured person besides a job in the company in his complaint sent on January 4.

According to the new company circular all labourers should board company buses. The security guards, asked the labourers on December 24 to board company buses instead of riding bicycles to the site, which the labourers resisted. In the firing and clash that followed, nine persons including a journalist were injured and three security guards were also injured in stone pelting by labourers.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/human-rights-body-seeks-report-on-firing-by-tata-steel-guards/article4386236.ece

Tribal Rights – The Government of India (GOI) accepting the contention of the environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has now decided that rights of tribal cannot be overlooked while clearing projects in forest areas, except in the case of rail tracks, roads and power lines and other linear projects.

This decision came following a meeting called by PM Manmohan Singh with Natarajan and tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo after the two had voiced opposition to a report asking for severe dilution to the rules requiring consent from gram sabhas (village councils) for projects in forests where tribals dwell traditionally.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-02/developmental-issues/36703204_1_tribal-rights-forest-clearances-environmental-clearances

Trafficking, Forced and Child Labour, Sexual Crimes – The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 was promulgated by the President of India’s signature on 3 February 2013. The 2013 Ordinance sets out clear procedures to deter sexual crimes against women, and is India’s first step towards crimes associated with trafficking in persons, trafficking for forced labour and employment of trafficked children in the Indian Penal Code.

The amendment provides definition for ‘Trafficking in persons’.  India ratified the United Nation’s Palermo Protocol in May 2011 following a Supreme Court directive in the case of Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India, and the definition included in Indian Penal Code’s new Section 370 penalises such trafficking attracting imprisonment of at least seven years, up to life. Similarly, employing of a trafficked person in any form of labour and the employing of a trafficked child attracts rigorous imprisonment under the new law.

http://www.globalmarch.org/content/trafficking-person-forced-labour-and-child-labour-crimes-indian-penal-code