Reality shows having children to perform indecently prohibited from transmission

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On the petition filed by Advocate Mohd. Raheemuddin, HRLN along with other NGO’s, Hon’ble Mr. Justice B.Subhashan Reddy, Chairperson of Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission gave a landmark order on 12/06/10 and held that every child has got a right to participate in cultural activities but they are subject to maintaining dignity, decency and discipline and certainly the reality shows of the kind performed and telecast in the case did not fall within the said limits, and therefore liable to be prohibited forthwith.

The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City was directed to invoke the provisions of the Cable Television, Net Works (Regulation) Act, 1995 and prohibit transmission of “AATA-5 YOUNG REALITY SHOW” on ZEE TV or any other TV Channel. Following the order the show has been taken off air since 14.06.10 and not being telecasted any longer.

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Delhi High Court recognises Child Marriage as human rights violation

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In a historic judgment on the issue of Child Marriage, division bench
comprising of Mr. Justice A. K. Sikri and Mr. Justice Ajit Bharihoke held
that the “child marriage is a violation of human rights, compromising the
development of girls and often resulting in early pregnancy and social
isolation, with little education and poor vocational training reinforcing
the gendered nature of poverty”.

In the case filed by Association for Human Rights v Union of India and
Others, the petitioner highlighted as to how a girl was sold,
trafficked and married off to on “Yashpal” by her father. The incidence of
the marriage of the girl was first found out by the members of Human Rights
Law Network in February-March 2010. After exhausting all possible remedies
to get the offenders booked for the offence of Child Marriage, the team
members of HRLN and the Petitioner organisation decided to file a case in
Delhi High Court. In the case, it was alleged that the Girl was not
traceable and despite all efforts, the Police failed to trace the girl and
to book the offenders for the offense of child marriage. The Petitioner,
thus, filed a habeas corpus petition in Delhi High Court for a direction to
the authorities to trace the girl and to bring the offenders to the book.

When the concerned Police Station failed to trace the girl after repeated
orders of the Court, the Court transferred the case to the Crime Branch of
Delhi Police. After this, the authorities came into action and traced and
rescued the girl. They also lodged a formal complaint against the
Father and the Husband of the Girl for offenses under Prohibition of Child
Marriage Act, 2006. The father and the husband were also arrested by the
Police.

The Court then conducted in camera hearing of the case and also heard the
Girl Child in person. After hearing the parties, the Court passed the
order. While discussing the evil of Child Marriage went into the
sociological reasons for the prevalence of Child Marriage in the society.
This case was a classic example, which proved the sociologists correct, the
court observed.

The Court also observed that “Young married girls are a unique, though often
invisible, group. Required to perform heavy amounts of domestic work, under
pressure to demonstrate fertility, and responsible for raising children
while still children themselves, married girls and child mothers face
constrained decision making and reduced life choices. Boys are also affected
by child marriage but the issue impacts girls in far larger numbers and with
more intensity.” The Court, while underlining the medical and psychological
effects over the girl child, further observed that “Where a girl lives with
a man and takes on the role of caregiver for him, the assumption is often
that she has become an adult woman, even if she has not yet reached the age
of 18.”

As the issue, whether such marriages are void ab initio or not is under
consideration before a larger bench, the Court refused to declare the
marriage as void. However, differing from earlier orders, where the young
wives were allowed to live with her husbands, the Court directed that the
Girl will live with her parents till she attains the age of 18
years. The Court also took the undertaking of the parents of the girl, her
husband and also of the mother of the husband that the marriage will not be
consummated till she attains the age of 18. On attaining the age of 18,
the girl can exercise the right to get her marriage annulled, as
provided under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The Court made it clear
that “it is the option of the victim girl to accept this marriage or not. In case
she does not accept this marriage, it shall be treated as null and void.”

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A Report on Harmonizing India’s laws with United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

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India ratified the U.N Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in September 2007, and the convention subsequently came into force in May 2008. This convention required that India make a number of changes to its laws, policies, regulations, notifications, programs, and schemes. As a part of this process of bringing the legal instruments of India into compliance with the UN CRPD, the Indian government was required to consult with disabled people and their organizations on how best to fulfill the CRPD mandates.

HRLN participated in this process along with a number of other NGOs, and together a series of recommendations were made to the government. Some of these recommendations involved expanding existing disability-specific legislation, while other recommendations involved taking general legislation and making it disability inclusive. From these recommendations, HRLN believes that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment should take these recommendations and form a new law, along with introducing an Amending and Repealing Act to fix or remove inappropriate laws, which between them would bring India in line with its CRPD commitments.

Click here for the Report

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Jharkhand High Court directs for a formation of a Committee for Rehabilitation of Vendors

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Picture: Google Images

Where on one hand Government of Delhi plans to remove all hawkers and vendor from road as part of beautification of Delhi for Commonwealth Games. On the other hand Jharkhand High Court has directed for the formation of a committee for rehabilitation of vendors.

A Division Bench of Jharkhand High Court, comprising of Acting Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice D.N. Patel in a Public Interest Litigation W.P. (PIL) No. 2519 of 2010 National Hawkers Federation Ranchi Chapter Vrs. Union of India and ors on dated 29.5.2010 in the presence of the DC, the SSP, the SP Traffic and the CEO RMC, directed that a committee be formed under the chairmanship of the former High Court judge SK Chattopadhyay, which will include the DC, the SSP, the Traffic SP and the CEO, RMC to look into the issues of vendors and their rehabilitation at suitable place. This PIL was filed by the Jharkhand State Unit of Human Rights Law Network.

The court has directed that the issue of the vendors will be guided by the direction of the apex court in Maharashtra Ekta Hawkers Union Case. Further the committee headed by the former High Court judge is expected to receive suggestions from public and civic organizations and the public at large for the improvement of the traffic congestion problem as well as the issue of vendor encroachment and their rehabilitation. Further Court directed that the representative of the street vendors shall appraise the committee.

Earlier Jharkhand High Court was passed an order dated on dated 4.5.2010 while hearing W.P. (PIL) No 6141 of 2010 Rajnish Mishra Vrs. State of Jharkhand and W.P (PIL) No. 1872 of 2010 Ashish Kumar Singh Vrs. State of Jharkhand, to remove all kind of encroachment from the streets of the city, consequently the livelihood of more than 30000 hawkers was getting effected. HRLN, Ranchi Unit filed Intervener petition on behalf of the Ranchi Foothpath Dukandar Sangh. Further HRLN filed the abovementioned PIL.

Read the PIL

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HRLN gets remarkable judgement in a case of Reproductive Rights

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04/06/2010


In a historic decision the Delhi High Court ordered compensation for violation of constitutional and reproductive rights of two impoverished women. The judgment will have immense health policy implications in India, where a maternal death occurs every five minutes.

In the case of Laxmi Mandal vs Deen Dayal Hari Nager Hospital & Ors W.P. 8853/2008 Justice Muralidhar instructed the State of Haryana, to pay compensation of Rs 2.4 lakhs to the family of Shanti Devi who passed away during child birth on 20 January this year. The Court found the Respondents in violation of Shanti Devi's right to life and health, reiterating that her death was preventable.

In the case of Jaitun v Maternity Home, MCD, Jangpura & Ors W.P. No. 10700/2009 High Court directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi to pay Rs 50,000 compensation to Fatima for the violation of her fundamental rights by being compelled to give birth to her daughter Alisha under a tree, on account of the denial of basic medical services.

"These petitions are essentially about the protection and enforcement of the basic, fundamental and human right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. These petitions focus on two inalienable survival rights that form part of the right to life: the right to health (which would include the right to access and receive a minimum standard of treatment and care in public health facilities) and in particular the reproductive rights of the mother. The other right which calls for immediate protection and enforcement in the context of the poor is the right to food".

The Court underlined that the cases demonstrated a complete failure of the public health system and a failure in implementation of Government Schemes, including the National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS), Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Janani Soraksha Yojana (JSY) - a scheme designed to reduce maternal and neo-natal mortality by encouraging institutional delivery for poor pregnant women. The judgment further directed the Respondents to ensure that the payment of Rs 500, eight to twelve weeks prior to delivery to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) pregnant women to ensure their proper nutrition under the NMBS, be ensured as per Supreme Court Order in PUCL v UOI 196/2001, irrespective of age and number of previous births in all states in India.

"Both the cases point to the complete failure of the implementation of the schemes. With the women not receiving attention and care in the critical weeks preceding the expected dates of delivery, they were deprived of accessing minimum health care at either homes or at the public health institutions (.) It points to the failure of the referral system where a poor person who is sent to a private hospital cannot be assured of quality and timely health services."

Drawing on international law Justice Muralidhar underlined that women have the right to control their body and decide when they wish to conceive. The Court also pointed out that women carry the burden of poverty in that they have to prove their BPL status when trying to access health facilities and accordingly ordered that "no pregnant women be denied access to medical treatment regardless of her social economical status".

"There is no assurance of "portability" of the schemes across the states. In the present case, Shanti Devi traveled from Bihar to Haryana and then to Delhi. In Haryana she was clearly unable to access the public health services. At Delhi she had to once again show that she had a BPL card, and on being unable to do so, she was denied access to medical facilities. For the migrant workers this can pose a serious problem. Instructions will have to be issued to ensure that if a person is declared BPL in any state of the country and is availing of the public health services in any part of the country, such person should be assured of continued availability of such access to public health care services wherever such person moves."

"It may be difficult to quantify the actual loss suffered by either family as a result of the failure by the State Government to deliver the benefits under the schemes to each of these women during their pregnancies. What is clear in Shanti Devi's case is that the maternal mortality was clearly avoidable".

"In the case of Fatema soon after the baby was delivered, she required nutrition and supplements which were denied till the Court's intervention. Even the ICDS benefits were given only after the Court's intervention. It is well possible that but for the Court's intervention, the baby and the mother may have been deprived of the benefits which would have caused irreparable injury and possibly loss of life".

"It was not denied by learned counsel appearing for the Government of Haryana, the GNCTD as well as the Central Government that as of now there is no inbuilt component for reparations under the schemes. Given that the budget outlay of the schemes is in several hundreds of crores, it is indeed surprising that there is no inbuilt component for reparations"

The maternal mortality ratio (number of women dying per 100,000 live births) in India is higher than in 120 countries, including neighboring states of Bangladesh, China, Nepal and Sri Lanka. More than 117,000 women and girls die each year in India from largely preventable pregnancy- related causes. This is the highest number of maternal deaths in any country world-wide, which accounts for almost 25% of the global maternal death burden.

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HC asks Govt to pay Rs 4lakh to students on midday meal fiasco - HRLN

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The Asian Age Report - 4th june

http://www.asianage.com/delhi/hc-pay-rs-4-lakhs-midday-meal-fiasco-190



The Delhi high court on Thursday directed the Delhi government to pay over Rs 4 lakhs as compensation to 126 students who has fallen ill after consuming midday meal in a state-run school last month.

After hearing a public interest litigation from an NGO Harit Recyclers Association, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Madan B. Lokur said, “The scheme has public character. It is the obligation of the state to see that it is properly worked out. No one becomes a victim and suffers from any kind of health hazard due to consumption of bad food. Here there can be no shadow of doubt that the state has to pay the compensation.”
The court directed the government to pay Rs 3,000 each to 121 students who were taken ill after eating the midday meal.
The court observed, “Young children suffered physical pain and mental agony. The mental shock of a child who goes to the casualty ward can be well imagined. The children who were admitted in ICU have suffered more than others. The psychology of young children has to be understood in proper prospective.” The bench passed the order after hearing a PIL from the NGO seeking direction to the government for implementation of Supreme Court’s guidelines relating to mid-day meal scheme. Filing the PIL, the NGO sought the court’s direction for a probe and prosecution of guilty officers responsible for such incident, apart from compensation for the victims.
The NGO claimed that at least five girl students out of 126 in government girls’ middle school in Hauz Qazi, Lal Kuan area of old Delhi fell sick and others suffered from nausea and stomach ache after eating the meal provided by an NGO on May 6.

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