India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report

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India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report

Kashmiri rights group documents structure of impunity and violence, including killings and enforced disappearances.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months [AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan]

The Indian government has covered up hundreds of cases of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a new report has alleged.

Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, told Al Jazeera on the release of the report, titled Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, that the Indian government had allowed systemic violence to take root in the Himalayan region hit by more than two decades of conflict.

Parvez, co-author of the mammoth 800-page report, released on Wednesday, said the International Peoples' Tribunal and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons had documented more than 1,080 extrajudicial killings and 172 enforced disappearances, as well as cases of sexual violence that go back to the early 1990s. The report took two years to compile.

The document details 333 case studies of human rights violations and names some 972 alleged perpetrators responsible for the crimes. These include 464 army personnel, 161 paramilitary personnel, 158 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and 189 "government gunmen".

"These crimes were happening with the full knowledge of higher level officers in the Indian government ... they must be all held accountable by international law," Parvez said.

'Structure of violence and impunity'

The allegations detailed in the report are supported by official records and testimonies and Parvez said that prosecution should not be limited to the individuals.

"We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley," he said.

The report calls for the UN Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate the crimes and appeals to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to exercise its power to refer the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). India is not a signatory to the ICC but the UNSC has the power to refer situations to the court.

Both Lieutenant Colonel N N Joshi, India's army spokesperson in Srinagar and Colonel Rohan Anand, India's army spokesperson in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera they had yet to see the new report and were therefore unable to comment.

Likewise, Naeem Akhtar, spokesperson for Government of Jammu and Kashmir state told Al Jazeera that he hadn't read the report yet and described the allegations leveled at the Indian government as a "generic statement".

"We are already looking into cases of human rights violations in Kashmir and we will give justice to the people"

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir state, said the party was looking into the claims made in the report.

"There have been some human rights violations in Kashmir ... and it is a fact [that] mistakes have been made on both sides and ultimately Kashmiris have suffered," Waheed-Ur-Rehman, spokesperson for the PDP, told Al Jazeera.

"We are trying our level best to provide justice to the people who have suffered in the past. Justice can never be anti-state, people will get justice," he said.

But Gautum Navalkha, a human rights activist and editorial consultant to the Economic and Political Weekly magazine in New Delhi, described justice as "a rarity" in the disputed region.

"Because of the militancy, Jammu and Kashmir is considered a 'disturbed area' [...] and there are two types of laws: one for common Indians and another for the 'disturbed areas'."

"There is no possibility of justice in Kashmir under these circumstances," Navalkha told Al Jazeera.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to raise concerns in August at rising tensions along the de-facto border between India and Pakistan.

At the time, the UN chief urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and take all steps to ensure the protection of civilians who continue to bear the brunt of hostilities between the two nations over their claims to Kashmir.

'Serious abuses'

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since both countries gained independence in 1947. Both nations claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety, with Kashmiris still staking a claim to self-determination. Since 1988, the Indian military has deployed hundreds of thousands of security forces to quell an insurgency against Indian rule.

In July, Amnesty International accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses in the region.

According to Amnesty, more than 96 percent of all allegations of human rights violations pitted against India's personnel in the disputed territory have been declared as "false or baseless".

"Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses," Minar Pimple, a senior director of global operations at Amnesty said.

In a rare deviation from the norm, a military court sentenced five Indian soldiers to life imprisonment for the murder of three Kashmiri men in 2010. Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, described it as a "watershed moment".

Amnesty welcomed the move but cautioned that "for justice to be consistently delivered, security force personnel accused of human rights violations should be prosecuted in civilian courts".


Over the past two decades more than 60,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, and the dispute remains a perilous red herring in India-Pakistan relations.

Millions of children hard at work in India

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Millions of children hard at work in India

International Child Labour Day turns harsh spotlight on India, with the highest number of working children in the world.

A boy carries heavy loads to the market in Bangalore, India [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

Bangalore, India - Across the globe more than 150 million children between age five and 14 are involved in child labour, while India is home to the highest number of working children in the world.

On International Day Against Child Labour on Friday, attempts are under way to put a stop to it. In India, more than 28 million children have jobs, according to UNICEF estimates.

India's current child labour law prohibits children under the age of 14 from being employed in hazardous jobs.

However, in May this year, rather than encouraging a complete abolition of child labour in the country, the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved only amendments to the law.

"We live in a country where it is very normal for a farmer's son to help the farmer after school hours or for an artisan's children to learn the craft. So we don't want this form of work to be penalised as child labour," a labour ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.

"That's why we've clearly stated that this form of work won't be punished," he said. "If a person breaks the law, the justice system is there."

A boy works on a construction sites in Electronic City in Bangalore [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

Although cabinet approval does not necessarily mean the bill will pass into law, it has prompted strong reactions in the country.

The Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO headed by 2014 Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, welcomed approval of the amendment bill.


"Currently, as the law stands, children under the age of 14 are not allowed to work in only 18 occupations and 65 processes that are deemed to be hazardous," explained Bhuwan Ribhu, an activist and lawyer with the BBA.

Feature: Child labourers share their stories on World Day against Child Labour

"This amendment bill allows for all forms of child labour to be prohibited until the age of 14 years," he said.

The law is "a welcome step", said Ribhu. "It's also welcome because rehabilitation is an integral part of the law. Employment of children has been made a cognisable offence and repeat offence is also a non-bailable offence," said the lawyer.

Ribhu added a word of caution, however.

"It is very important for the law to be worded in such a way that it is not open to misuse. There is a difference between children working in families and child labour in family enterprises. And that has not yet been made clear.


"Child labour needs to be defined clearly in the law so that children are not exploited in the name of family-based work," Ribhu said.

India's child labour law prohibits children under the age of 14 from being employed in hazardous jobs [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

A recent UN report said nearly 300 million people still live under poverty in India. For a country with extreme inequalities, an abolitionist approach may not be a practical solution.

However, Ribhu pointed out that "poverty is also perpetuated with the exploitation of children".

"Currently there are about as many unemployed adults in India as there are working children. So these jobs are being taken by children instead of adults in the name of cheap labour," he said.

"Trafficking of children for forced labour has become one of the largest organised crimes in the world and I am afraid that it will continue in the name of family enterprises."

In the 35 years since its establishment, the BBA has rescued more than 83,500 working children from across 18 states in India.


Just this week, the organisation rescued 26 children from New Delhi and four from Bangalore.

NGOs such as the Concerned for Working Children in Bangalore are trying to help children escape work [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

Other organisations working in the field take a different approach to child labour.

Nandana Reddy, co-founder of Concerned for Working Children (CWC), challenged the narrative of "saving childhood" that dominates discussions on the issue.

"There are moralists who believe that children have to enjoy this beautiful childhood, this utopian childhood, which doesn't really exist," Reddy said.

"We have millions of working children in India. Now you can't rescue all of them and put them in remand homes," she added. "That's absolutely ridiculous. By putting them into remand homes, you are violating a whole set of rights. This approach has not changed in decades."

Reddy said she found the amendment to the bill alarming.

"Allowing children to work in family or family-based occupations can be a throwback to the Sivakasi days, where the match and firework industry was all run by family-based enterprises. It's a way for the industry to use cheap labour and, what we call, invisible hands," Reddy said.


Instead, the government should provide jobs for children in the formal sector that can be monitored, she said.

Many working children in India's big cities come from migrant families, who leave their villages in search of better opportunities [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

The Bangalore-based CWC played an instrumental role in setting up Asia's first working children's union called the Bhima Sangha back in 1990. Twenty-five years later, the Bhima Sangha continues to help working children unionise and fight for their rights.

Sivraju, 13, is a member of Bhima Sangha. He works and attends school in Bangalore.
Sivraju's parents moved here from the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh in search of better job opportunities to help build a new house back in their village.

When Sivraju is not at school, he cleans water tanks and roads in his neighbourhood.
"I work because I can make money. I get paid about 200 rupees for an hour's work ($3). I give most of the money to my parents. I keep about 30-40 rupees ($0.50) with me and I use it to buy food for my little sister," he said.


"I like to work because it pays me money and I can give it to my parents," Sivraju added.

CWC is known for the creation of the Bhima Sangha, Asia's first union for working children [Felix Gaedtke/Al Jazeera]

Sivraju, who recently passed the seventh grade exams, wants to be a doctor when he grows up. For Sivraju, Bhima Sangha is an important place to meet other children.

"At the Bhima Sangha, we get to learn about our rights and we also find out about education and other things related to school," he explained.

But, the possibility of a law prohibiting children from working is problematic for Sivraju.

"I need money to buy books and pens and pencils, and to pay my fees," he said. "How can I stop working?"

Infographic: Child labour: Where do countries stand? [Al Jazeera]