Status of human rights in contemporary India: a study of trends in incidents of violation, judicial developments and institutions (20142019)

Abstract

Human rights are fundamental rights of all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, gender, faith, etc. Human rights include the right to live with dignity and liberty, right to education and work, freedom of speech and expression, freedom from oppression and slavery, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. Although concept of human rights is not a very new thing for Indian civilisation, it is rooted there in our culture. At the same time, Indian society would had been probably one of the worst societies in the world practicing number of social evils degrading the life and value of human beings - like caste discrimination, sati prathta etc. Human rights in India underwent lot of ups and downs. Post-independence, most of the human rights as declared by UDHCR were reflected as Fundamental Rights in Indian Constitution, which was adopted on 26 January 1950. We also witnessed a number of historical judgements which further strengthened human rights in India. The last five years remained in news for various new trends in both - violations as well as strengthening of human rights in India. The paper attempts to outline such recent trends in last five years (2014-2019) in India.