Day 17 – Q 1.The statutory bodies mandated to oversee and ensure social justice and protection of rights of the vulnerable and backward sections of the society have by and large failed to do so. Do you agree? Critically analyse.
1. The statutory bodies mandated to oversee and ensure social justice and protection of rights of the vulnerable and backward sections of the society have by and large failed to do so. Do you agree? Critically analyse.
सामाजिक न्याय और समाज के कमजोर और पिछड़े वर्गों के अधिकारों की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करने के लिए कार्यरत वैधानिक संस्थाएं ऐसा करने में ज्यादातर असफल ही रही हैं। क्या आप सहमत हैं? समालोचनात्मक विश्लेषण करें।
Approach:
- Introduction
- Assessment of performance of statutory bodies- as questions demands for critical analysis, both positive and negative aspects should be outlined.
- Conclusion- Way ahead
Introduction:
Statutory bodies are extra constitutional body created by an act of parliament to serve particular purpose. Few examples of statutory bodies mandated to oversee and ensure social justice and protection of the vulnerable and backward sections of the society are-
- NHRC- For protecting human rights of the vulnerable.
- NCW- For women.
- NCPCR- For children.
- NCST, NCSC and NCBW- For scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes respectively.
Critical analysis:
These bodies have overall failed to serve the purpose they were meant for as-
- The atrocities against vulnerable groups like SCs, STs, women and children are on rise.
- Religious and caste atrocities like that of lynching, honor killing, crimes against dalits are increasing because of failure in tackling these instances strictly.
Reasons behind failure are:
- The punishments handed over by the statutory bodies are rarely enforced and thus does little to deter crimes.
- Political interference especially in case of NHRC making it a ‘toothless tiger'(As termed by Supreme court).
- Lack of support on the part of governments at the Centre and State. The Central government has been criticised by NHRC for ignoring its requests to recruit more staff which is leading to long delays and inability to follow up on steps undertaken.
- While statutory bodies were supposed to be headed by an expert in particular field, it has actually become a lucrative profession for retired bureaucrats and judges, no matter their experience in the field.
Despite above mentioned shortcomings the statutory bodies have in various instances helped the vulnerable sections in society. Few examples are:
- National Legal Service Authority has made justice accessible and affordable for the poor.
- The National Commission for Women regularly extends financial support to NGOs and educational institutions to conduct Legal Awareness Programmes to enable women and girls to know their legal rights.
- NCPCR has made various recommendations for checking crimes against children, these recommendations have been added in the criminal law as well.
Way forward:
- Statutory bodies need to be empowered truly by making them free of political interference, manning them with adequate and suitable manpower, providing them enough funding for carrying out basic research etc.
- More powers- Specially to impose penalty.
- Making their decisions binding on executive. In cases where executive decides not to implement the decisions, it should provide reasons behind not doing so.
- Constitutional mandate of putting yearly reports by these bodies in parliament should be done in true spirit and parliamentarians should spend decent time to discuss the report.
Above everything political will is required on part of both central and state governments to make these bodies truly effective and thus improve the conditions of the vulnerable in country.
Best answer: vipasha parul
