The middle ground for human rights work throughout India is eroding fast. Social activists, civil society leaders and “right to information” activists—who have always stood against the exploitation of Dalits, tribes and other marginalised communities—are increasingly facing the wrath of the state, despite it being the largest democracy in the world. Instead of treating these activists as partners in a very vibrant democratic process, the state more often perceives them as threats to “national security” and “national interests”. As a result, the state is increasingly targeting, harassing, imprisoning—and sometimes even killing—many of these defenders.
The situation is even worse in the conflict zones of central and northeast India, as well as in Kashmir, where anyone critical of the state is immediately subject to suspicion, intimidation, harassment, torture and death.
The most common tactic that the state uses to threaten and silence human rights defenders is arrests in false and fabricated cases. It is against this backdrop that Human Rights Defenders Alert – India (HRDA) intervened in 104 cases of human rights defenders with the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) and various United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms in 2015. During the same year, HRDA intervened in 11 cases of murder, 60 cases of harassment, physical assault, physical and verbal threat, and 33 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention. Nearly 80% of these cases were of human rights defenders working on protecting land, natural resources, tribal rights and exposing corruption. Twenty-four cases were those who used Right to Information (RTI) applications and 11 cases were reprisals against journalists, writers and socio-political thinkers. In seven cases, peacefully protesting citizens faced severe crackdowns and excessive use of force by state officials. The most common tactic that the state uses to threaten and silence human rights defenders is arrests in false and fabricated cases.
