Human Rights in India: Theory and Practice

Abstract

Democracy and human rights are the two sides of the same coin. In democratic countries, human rights occupy a prominent place. There is great respect and recognition of human rights. While in non-democratic countries, human rights are curtailed to some extent. But in present century, many democratic countries have been targeted for the human right abuse at large. India is world’s largest democratic country has a detailed chapter on fundament rights in part-III of the constitution. The constitution has made a provision for the protection of fundamental rights under article 32 and 226 through which different types of writs can be issued for the defence of fundamental rights. Theoretically, there is a detailed deliberation on the protection of fundamental rights in the constitution and also there is National Human Rights Commission for the protecting and promoting human rights in India. In addition to this, there are state level Human Rights Commissions also. There are International, national and state level non-governmental organisations that are perpetually monitoring human rights at length. But despite this, practically there are exorbitant violations of human rights in India.

In this backdrop, this paper aims to demystify that 21^st century marked an excessive human rights violations in India. The arbitrary arrest and detention, freedom of assembly and expression, unfair trails, excessive use of force, organised crimes in the name of religion, caste based domination are the key domains of human rights violations in India. This paper concludes that, India needs to frame protection of human rights policy in India that can cater the need for the protection human rights at length.