Pics: Joshwa D'Souza / Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)

Mangaluru, Jan 29: Firebrand human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Friday January 29 said that the real growth of a country is when the human rights of its citizens are protected, and that human rights need to be ensured in families first, especially through equal treatment of boy and girl, in order that they are protected in society too.

Speaking at an interactive session with students at the city's SDM College, Teesta Setalvad said, "Nowadays people are measuring a country's growth by its GDP and other economic factors, but the true growth of a country comes when human rights of its citizens are protected. The capitalists are growing and there are more investments coming in, but the rights of the labourers are being exploited. Today the ideas of equality and non-discrimination are being violated in the families themselves. I feel we should start implementing human rights in families. Youth today do not have the freedom to choose their careers, rather, parents decide what their child has to become.

"When it comes to equality in family, a girl child feels that she should be treated in a particular way, but a boy feels that he should be dealt with differently. When there is no equality in family, how can we expect the same from society and in country?" she questioned.

"Human rights is a complex issue. Even though the Constitution protects human rights, they are being violated. Even though cities are developing in terms of infrastructure and size, our society still exploits a group of people of some castes to clean the filth. Nowadays, the life of poor people is really miserable and poverty has taken a cruel dimension. Earlier, the poor used to eat very less, but the nutrition value used to be very high. But now their food consumption has reduced with country's growth and even the nutritional value has reduced. In this context, Indians were fortunate to get three major reforms in the administration - Right to Information Act, Food Security Act, and the MGNREGA which ensure food and daily wages to everyone. Still, inequality and hunger persist because every government, irrespective of the political party, has diluted these reforms.

"Today, in the name of corporate responsibility, efforts are being made to shift the wealth towards the deveopment of the society but it is not bearing any results. In this context, youth have to be passionate in protecting the rights of others because even though we are looking at the China model of development, we are forgetting that it is a feudalistic growth. If this happens, there is no scope for human rights. Hence, tomorrow's citizens who are the youth of today have to raise their voice," she entreated.

On the death of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula of Hyderbad Central University which has sparked nationwide outrage, she said, "Today students from across the nation have come to streets to protest against the system. The public rage is increasing. It is mainly because the government has cancelled the scholarships to the poor and about 35-40 percent of the poor are deprived of education. A section of the students are dealt with in a very bad in Hyderabad Central University. This is not something we saw only recently - it has been happening from 10 years. When I questioned a few students who are studying there, they pointed out at a few lecturers who are from a particular section of the society and who are not treating the students with equality."

Accusing the media of bias, she said, "Today even the media has become the spokesperson of the government. The media which is called the fourth pillar of democracy is looking only at its own interests. There was a protest by school children in Delhi against the cancellation of scholarships. The media did not cover or give enough publicity to this protest. The students made a video of it as they were protesting to awaken the society."

"Out of 550-odd parliamentarians, about 383 are crorepatis. Out of them, 2/3rd are businessmen who run their own media agencies and channels. When media is controlled by businessmen and capitalists, how can they protect the interests of the common man? How can a person from a very poor background stand for elections and fight against the power of wealth and the corporate sector? I urge the youth to engage themselves in protecting the human rights in at least one way," she said.

During interaction with the students, Teesta was asked a question on steps the government should take against moral policing or immoral rowdyism in Mangaluru, to which she replied, "It is very unfortunate that in an educational hub like Mangaluru, such outfits have come up. No one has the right to question who one should be with. It depicts the insecurity in their minds, because if a person cannot tolerate a person from his community speaking to a person from another community, then it depicts his shaky attitude. Unfortunately our governments are not standing by our youths and thereby indirectly supporting these outfits."

To a question on the controversial ban on beef in some states, she said, "We need to respect and allow the food habits and cultures of different religions. If we curb any practice, then we will not have the varied diversity which we are famous for. Hence we cannot pose restrictions on any community. Such bans should not be imposed."

Asked if death penalty should be the punishment for rape, she said, "A murder or taking away a person's life is worse than rape, because once life is taken away, no one can bring it back. Even though we impose very strict punishments, we cannot stop rape unless and until we change mindsets. It is the youth who have to initiate a movement to spread awareness on this."

Principal of SDM Post Graduate Centre for Management and Research Aruna P Kamath, convenor of the talk Thilakraj, convener of Centre for Integrated Learning S Nandagopal and others were present.