HUMAN RIGHTS:

Concept of human rights concerned with the rights of individuals. The rights of individuals are by virtue of being human. Principles of equal treatment, freedom of expression, right to work, right to pray, right to education are some of them.(1)

Human Rights are commonly understood as ‘Inalienable’ fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because he or she is a human being. These rights are natural rights or legal rights. Human Rights form a common moral language. (2)

Human Rights are practiced all over world. At the International level, the most categorization of Human Rights has been to split them in to Civil and Political rights and Social and Cultural rights. One of the oldest records of Human Rights is the statute of Kasliz (1264), giving privileges to Jewish minority in kingdom of Poland. It provided protection from discrimination and hate speech. (3)

The term Human Rights probably came into use since 1831.Developments in Philosophy of Human Rights are by the Philosophers –Tomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and G.W.F. Hegel during 18^th and 19^th century .The motivation for working to realize Human Rights must be based on compassion, solidarity and desire for justice. There cannot be a Human Rights based society without individuals who have internalized Human Rights, ethics, Philosophy and politics. All individuals have to be committed to attain the objectives of Human Rights.

The Triplet Approach is the key mechanism proposed to enable Human Rights. It consists of Assessment, Analysis, Action and Re-analysis. (3)

In forty fourth year of republic of India, Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 was enacted by Parliament. For the purpose of providing speed trial of offences arising out of violation of Human Rights, the State Government in concurrence of Chief Justice of High Court, specify a court for each district. For every Human Rights court, the state government specifies a public prosecutor. (3) Many Human Rights organizations are there such as Amnesty International, Human Rights watch (HRW). These organizations condemn against human right abuses in Kashmir. Extra- Judicial executions, Armed Forces Special powers Act grants Military –wide powers of arrest, right to shoot or kill and to occupy or destroy property.

WOMEN RIGHTS IN INDIA:

Women in India face a lot of Social inequalities ranging from gender specific abortions, mistreatment by their spouses to eve teasing. Most women in India are not aware of Women Rights. Sometimes their legal rights are not protected as they should be. Women empowerment plays a significant role in letting them know their rights. (1)

Female feticide, eve teasing, Eve teasing, bride burning, dowry, rape are the problems women has to face. They get special protection against these issues.

FEMALE FOETICIDE:

This is the act of aborting female fetuses. It is the problem linked with dowry system. Indians have strong inclination for sons over daughters. 80% of the districts in India recorded high male sex ratio. An estimated 10 million female foetuses have been aborted illegitimately in India. This leads to Human Trafficking. Around 10000 Nepali women are brought to India annually for commercial sexual exploitation. To curb this problem, Indian government should take strict actions against those who practice it.

EVE TEASING:

Eve Teasing is a euphemism for sexual harassment of females by males in public areas. The challenge that faces victims of eve teasing is how to prove that a total stranger has sexually harassed them. It is becoming increasingly difficult to prove such crimes because offenders have found clever ways of harassing women. Everyone knows the fresh incidence of girl suicide due to eve teasing.

BRIDE BURNING:

This is a type of domestic violence whereby a bride is killed by husband or in-laws, because of dowry dissatisfaction issues.2500 deaths per year in India attributed to bride burning. In 1961 government passed a Dowry Prohibition Act to cease dowry murders. In 1983 The Anti-Cruelty Statute forbids cruelty towards wives and subjects to perpetrators of such crime to imprisonment or fines. Rape is the most common crimes against women in India. Marital rape was made illegal in 1983. Rape in India is a crime that occurs every 54^th minutes and it violates a woman and her privacy. Women need to be taught self defense mechanism so that they can protect themselves. Men should also learn the importance of respecting women Rights.

DOWRY:

In spite of the Dowry Prohibition Act, giving and receiving of dowry is still practiced to date. Women are faced with the pressure of giving dowry to bridegroom’s family. This is violation of Women Rights, because it gives financial burden to them. Dowry is considered as a bribe. It can be in any form – cash, jwellery, vehicle, furniture or home. It is not only practiced before wedding only but after wedding too. It leads to bride burning, female feticide and human trafficking also.

What Is Women Empowerment?

Women Empowerment is defined as

(i) Restructuring of gender relations within family and society

(ii) To ensure legal justice to women.

(iii) Building women’s capabilities, through education and health care.

(iv) To improve opportunities for women to earn income or to participate in decision making forums.

(v) To build women’s capabilities through education and health care.

(vi) Establishing and strengthening institutional machinery to ensure implementation and monitoring of gender empowering policies.

(vii) Autonomy and control over one’s life –several components are Economic, Social, and Political empowerment.

(viii) Empowerment is a process to participate effectively in decisions that affect women’s lives –at the family, community and higher levels of political process.

Women became empowered through collective reflection and decision making. Its parameters are – building a positive self image and self confidence; encouraging group action in order to bring about change in society.

Education is an instrument of empowerment. In India, in some rural part of country, female literacy rate is as low as 18%. The male female literacy gap is 21.70(census 2001). The states where women play an important social and economic role are Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur experienced rapid progress in improving health, reducing mortality and fertility. The performance on the millennium development indicates much worse in Northern states- Bihar, U.P. Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The following table shows most gender insensitive states in India. (4)

	Uttar Pradesh	Kerala
Literacy	57.36	90.92
Male Literacy	70.23	94.20
Female Literacy	42.98	87.86
Sex Ratio	879	1036

Women in India constitutes great mass of illiterate and powerless humanity. Female literacy in India is 46.4% as compared to 69% amongst male. Prevalence of hegemonic masculine ideology made women subservient to men and they were denied equal opportunities in different parts of the world. Due to orthodox mentality, traditional customs, masculine dominance lack them behind. It is mentioned in Manu- Smruti that ‘न स्त्री: स्वातंत्र्यम अरहती’ It means don’t give freedom to ladies. In such a adverse situations Savitribai Phule, Ahilyabai Holkar, Dr. Ramabai Ranade contributed their precious efforts to overcome women. Still empowerment of women is an urgent necessity and the most effective way to stimulate sustainable development. In India the unequal status of women is a cause of concern. They suffer from social economic and political exclusion and remain at the margins. The progress of women’s development should be so far for the socio-cultural and structural constraints that they face even now and tries to suggest corrective measures. Rani Laxmibai, Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, Pratibhatai Patil, Medha Patkar, Kalpana Chawala , Lata Mangeshkar, Kiran Bedi, P. T. Usha ,Malala are the great inspirations in different fields to overcome women. Many NGOs, Human Right organizations are working there to help them. Women helpline also exists. The charter of the United Nations reaffirms faith in fundamental Human Rights, in the dignity and worth of human person and in equal rights of men and women.

REFERANCES:

1. Gautam, Priyadarshini : Women And Human Rights National and International Perspectives. New Delhi, Swastik Publications, 2014

2. Ram Das, Gopal : International Provisions Of Human Rights . New Delhi, Swastik Publications,2013

3. Nagar,Babulal : International Protection Of Human Rights. New Delhi, Swastik Publications, 2014

4. Gupta, Krishna: Empowerment of Women, Emerging dimensions. New Delhi Swastik Publications, 2010

Received on 01.02.2016 Modified on 05.03.2016

Int. J. Rev. and Res. Social Sci. 4(2): April - June, 2016; Page 77-79