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Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna
National Human Rights Commission chairman J S Verma on Thursday said that there is a 'crisis of governance' in the country, which is increasing human rights violations.
He said there is an urgent need to check faulty governance as it leads to more cases of such violations in states that have more illiteracy and poverty.
Verma was addressing a press conference at the state guesthouse in Patna on the last day of his three-day visit to Bihar to review human rights violations in the state.
Verma made it clear that the crisis of governance is not specific to Bihar, but it is much better than some north Indian states and Union Territories as far as human rights violations are concerned.
He said people generally lack knowledge about what constitutes human rights violations. They generally treat custodial death or torture by police, criminals or people in power as cases of human rights violations.
But the fact is that human rights have a much broader base and it is not only about politics and civil rights. Social, economic, cultural rights and also health-care and nutrition level among children constitute human rights.
He said that the government should try to protect the human rights of all its citizens without any discrimination. The state should implement social, cultural and economic rights in order to reduce the number of such violations.
Referring to the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat, Verma said the NHRC's recommendations to the state government regarding relief and rehabilitation had a wide impact on public opinion.
Asked why the Gujarat government did not implement those recommendations, he said that the NHRC is not another Supreme Court.
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