Commission to hear cases relating to child labour, police firing, ostracizing of families
From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Close on the heels of the visit by a team of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the National Human Rights Commision (NHRC) too will dig into the details of the plight of child labourers in the rate-hole coal mines of Meghalaya.
“The Commission headed by its Chairman Justice (Retd) KG Balakrishnan will take up nine pending cases which will be heard by the Full Commission and the two Division Benches respectively. These will include issues of child labour in coal mines, dead male foetuses found in several parts in the State, deaths in police firing, torture of labourers at West Garo Hills by BSF personnel and ostracizing of 17 families facing denial of food grains for 72 months,” a statement from the National Human Rights Commission here on Thursday said.
The cases will also include manual scavenging, child marriage, prenatal sex selection, population policy and custodial death cases among others, the statement added.
The NHRC will hold its sitting in Shillong on May 30, prior to which the Commission will hold sittings in Guwahati on May 28 and 29.
The main aim of the sittings would be to reach to far flung areas of the State, the statement stated.
In Assam, 50 cases ranging from starvation deaths to encounter killings and trafficking of women and children would be considered for disposal with necessary directions to the public authorities.
The Commission will also sensitize the state governments on the importance of human rights issues and compliance of NHRC recommendations by them, officials added.
