Sikkim Human Rights Commission receives 13 complaints within a year

Sikkim Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has received a total of 13 complaints within a period of one year i.e. from 1st March 2021 to 31st March, said an annual report.

The annual report which was tabled in a recently held two-day session of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly further revealed that out of the 13 cases which the commission received, 9 such cases have already been disposed of. 

''As on 31st March 2021, there were 6 pending cases out of which 4 cases have been disposed of,'' the report added. 

Notably, in Sikkim which has more than 6 lakh population, still, the complaints are less which clearly indicates that either people don't know about the Human Right Commission or there is a lack of awareness among the people. 

It is also worth mentioning that the state government had allotted a budget of Rs 2,55,00,000/ to the Commission and it is maintaining proper accounts and records. 

Moreover, if we compare it with last year's record then in the year 2020-21 the commission received only 6 complaints out of which 2 cases have been disposed of. And as on 31st March 2020, there were 4 pending cases out of which 2 cases have been disposed of in the mentioned year.  It must be mentioned here that 2020-21 was the year of the pandemic so a due number of complaints may have decreased. 

In a nutshell, it can be interpreted as Sikkim having fewer human rights violations as compared to other states, where the number of custodial deaths is a huge number but in Sikkim, there is no such death reported in the last 2 -3 years.

If the complaints in the last eight years are compared then in 2019-20, seven cases were reported while in 2018- 19 there were 11 cases. Besides this, in 2017-18 there were 10 cases and in 2016 -17 there were 13 cases. 

Lastly, in 2015-16 there were four such complaints, and in the year 2014-15 there were seven cases so all together in the last eight years SHRC saw 71 complaints.