Upholder of human rights

29 June, 2003,The Hindu

A Barrister from the prestigious Lincoln Inn in England, Maja Daruwala, left a career in law in 1986 to work in the field of human rights. At present, she is director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a widely recognized international non-governmental organization (NGO) involved in human rights advocacy and education in commonwealth countries.

Ms. Daruwala was in the city recently to participate in a roundtable on police reforms, jointly organized by the CHRI and the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club.

As a lawyer, she says, she disliked court practice. "In the courts, nothing ever seemed to get resolved. And being in the legal system made me feel like a trapped character in a Kafka novel."

As a human rights activist, Ms. Daruwala says she believes in working towards the practical realization of human rights.

There are several human rights organizations which take up individual acts of injustice against citizens. Such organizations have their own constituency and the CHRI respects their work.

But Ms. Daruwala says that her organization is different to the extent that it is an NGO working for raising the level of human rights awareness among all sections of society, including policy-makers and opinion leaders. Such an advocacy would prompt policy-makers to institutionalise adherence to human rights norms in all instruments of the Government.

The CHRI speaks with the voice of an NGO which truly reflects the aspirations and apprehensions of the developing world, she says.

Commenting on police reforms in Kerala, Ms. Daruwala says the Kerala police have some unique strengths which can be exploited to better their service to society and thereby become a model for the entire country.

The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony's, decision to give professional freedom to the police and insulate the force from extraneous influence is a bold and daring step.

"But I feel that these reforms, currently under way in the Police Department, have to be institutionalized in a statutory manner so that they cannot be rolled back or reversed. Otherwise, how can Kerala convince her own people and the rest of the country that some path breaking police reforms are actually done here", she asks.

Speaking about the nature of the police in general, she says that the Indian police force is yet to shake off its colonial hangover.

The public still perceive the police as a dreaded instrument of coercion.

"It is not uncommon for a citizen in India to take off his shoes before entering the office of a policeman and genuflect in a lowly and servile manner.

Citizens who prefer a complaint are rarely offered a seat or treated in a way that suits his dignity as a human being. Even the police parlance has not changed in the past 100 years. A citizen preferring a complaint is still referred to in colonial terms as a petitioner", she says.

The police and public are in conflict in the developing world. It is not uncommon for police departments to view those who openly advocate human rights as irritants.

The public dread the police. The police, in turn, feel it is under siege from all quarters.Perhaps, Kerala could be the herald of change as far as police reforms are concerned for the whole country.

"The political climate here is conducive for change. The Police Department is open to new ideas and there is lot of talent and initiative in the department itself.

The society is vastly literate and progressive in nature. What else can Kerala ask for?" she asks.

Ms. Daruwala feels that the Government should set up a temporary mechanism to quantify, evaluate and gauge the results of the ongoing reforms initiative headed by the Chief Minister and the DGP, Hormese Thakaran.