by Santosh Digal

Today is the International Day for Human Rights, whose theme this year is "My voice counts." In India the most serious violations relate to women, children, Dalits and religious minorities. Increasingly widespread violence of the police against peaceful demonstrators.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - Violence against women, abuse of power by the police against peaceful demonstrators; enforced disappearance; discrimination against Dalits and persecution of religious minorities are some of the violations that the Indian Catholic Church remembers today, marking the International Day for Human Rights human. This year the United Nations has chosen the theme "My voice counts," to emphasize the right to participation in public life, described as "fundamental to any democratic society" by Fr. Charles Irudayam, secretary of justice, peace and development commission of the Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI). "In our lives - said the priest - we can not but note with sadness the situation of human rights in India."

The 2012 report of the Working Group on Human Rights (Wghr) paints a bleak picture of India in the field of human rights. According to data, two women are raped every hour, and every six a young bride is beaten to death, burned, or induced to commit suicide. Added to this is the lack of national health care, a sector to which the country devotes only 4.4% of its budget (compared to an international average of 11.5%). Children are almost forgotten: while representing more than 40% of the population, services dedicated to them see only 5.3% of the national budget. Every 43 minutes a farmer commits suicide, and deaths from hunger are still common. There are also high cases of violence caused by the authorities: in addition to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings (in areas of conflict, ed), there are an estimated 1.8 million victims of police torture and violence. Cases of discrimination against Dalits are a regular reality: a criminal act every 18 minutes, three rapes, 11 assaults and 13 murders per day.

According to Fr. Cedric Prakash, director of the Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace Prashant, faced with such an enormity of violations "the International Day for Human Rights is a reminder that civil society must be heard and expose the myths, lies and half-truths flaunted by governments. Our silence makes us complicit. "

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