New Delhi, 13 January 2005
Dr. Justice A.S. Anand, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission has said that the trafficking in women and children has acquired menacing global proportions with eight billion dollars income per annum from this illicit trade. He said treating human being as cattle or commodity is the worst kind of indignity to a person.
Dr. Justice Anand was speaking on the occasion of releasing of two posters in Hindi aimed at creating awareness for the prevention of trafficking. The posters have been prepared by the Commission in collaboration with the Joint Women's Programme, an NGO. He said though there are plenty of legislations to prevent trafficking but because of the indifference of society, trafficking continues. Dr. Anand appealed to the civil society and the media to join hands to save the women and children from trafficking and exploitation.
The Chairperson also released the Glossary of Human Rights Terms - Manav Adhikar Shabdavali. The English-Hindi Glossary, the first of its kind, contains more than 10,000 words and is a result of the collective efforts of scholars and linguists. Dr. Anand said understanding of the words is very important because word is the very basis from which action starts. Dr. Anand pointed out that most of the terms used in Human Rights jurisprudence have been derived from English and even Latin languages. He said Hindi is the language of the masses in India and so it was felt that the terms used in the context of human rights should also be available for the masses in their own language.