Haryana, which has time and again dominated the headlines for atrocities on Dalits and rising crime against women, stands second in the country in the list of complaints relating to human rights violations. Already with an abysmal record of rights violations and atrocities on Dalits, Haryana now has the second highest number of human rights violation cases reported to National Human Rights Commission in the past three years.
Haryana trails only Uttar Pradesh in the cases of human rights violations. And, the matter of concern here is that the cases of rights violations is on rise in the State. According to the NHRC data, the Commission registered 12262 complaints of human rights violations either suo motu or on complaints or on intimation by the prison and police authorities from Haryana during the time period of April 2014- January 2015.
In 2011-2012, the complaints registered were 4175 which jumped significantly to 9440 in 2012-13. The number of rights violations cases went up to 10297 in 2013-14. Till January this year, the figure has already touched 12262, signifying high incidence of human rights violations in Haryana. The human rights violations are segregated into various categories including those related to children, health, jail, judiciary, the mafia, labour, minorities, police, pollution and environment, women, paramilitary, defence forces, terrorism, foreigners and riots.
The NHRC registered a total of 95965 cases from April 2014-January 2015 with Uttar Pradesh topping the chart with 43455 cases followed by Haryana with 12262, national capital Delhi with 7805 and Odisha 4223. During the same period, the Commission received 1566 complaints from Haryana’s neighboring state Punjab, 248 from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and 181 complaints from Haryana’s capital Chandigarh.
Notably, NHRC had in March this year issued notice to the Haryana Government seeking report on desecration of an under-construction church in Hisar and over the alleged botched cataract surgery in Panipat in which 19 patients lost their vision. In the past, the Commission had issued notices to the State Government taking suo motu cognizance of reports related to increase in the infant mortality rate in Haryana, severe malnutrition among children, attack on dalits, girls' harassment cases among others.
Haryana Human Rights Commission receives 2825 complaints
After its inception, Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) has received 2825 complaints from November 2012 till March 2015. Out of the total complaints, 1679 complaints have been disposed of while 1146 complaints are under consideration. An official of the HHRC informed that nearly 60 percent complaints received by HHRC so far are against police personnel of Haryana.
These complaints are of various nature including allegations of helping the criminals, harassment of innocent, negligence in duty, demanding bribe among others. The Haryana Human Rights Commission had started functioning with effect from November 22. Any person aggrieved on account of violation of his or her human rights could submit his or her complaint along with an affidavit during office hours on any working day.