The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called for action-taken report (ATR) from the State Chief Secretary over deaths of 27 opera party persons in Deogarh district.
Acting on a complaint filed by rights campaigner Subash Mohapatra, the rights panel sought ATR within four weeks on Friday.
Following the death of 27 persons of an opera party after a bus fell into a 300-feet gorge in Deogarh district on April 17, Mohapatra had sought the rights body’s intervention to direct the State Government to provide an interim compensation of `10 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and `5 lakh to injured persons.
“The opera parties are performing between midnight and 5 am in many places of Odisha, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, where Odia communities dominate. Children were made to perform and make stage shows including sexual and vulgar scenes before mass audiences,” he alleged. He also said the district administrations permit them to perform these stage shows despite the fact that they are practising slavery.
Mohapatra further said that a petition had earlier been filed before the commission over the issue when the State Government responded that it had issued a circular for mandatory registration of the opera parties.
“But most of the opera parties like Bharati Gananatya are running illegally and the authorities are responsible for the non-implementation of the preventive measures, including registration of the opera parties and stringent action under Child labour Act,” said Mohapatra.