The National Human Rights Commission in continuity with its programme of visits to 28 districts in different states of the country sent a team led by Member Shri Satyabrata Pal to Wayanad district in Kerala for making an assessment of the level of awareness and enforcement of human rights. The team, comprising Joint Secretary (Training), Shri PMV Siromony and other Officers stayed there for five days from the 14th to 18th September, 2009. During this period, the team visited schools, primary and community health centres, police stations, old age homes, jail, ration shops and took stock of the situation about the empowerment of children, women, scheduled castes & scheduled tribes and other vulnerable sections of the society in different parts of the district. Nobody was seen detained in police custody more than 24 hours and no torture was reported while interrogation in police stations. The police lock-ups were arranged with enough ventilation and suicide safety measures. Juveniles involved in crime cases are taken in custody only if it is inevitable and they are being produced in the juvenile court with proper procedures. The district has a sizeable population of tribals who are mostly labourers. A workshop to share the information about the rights of scheduled castes & tribes was also held involving local officials, members of panchayats, NGOs and the media.

Member, Shri Pal observed that human rights promotions can be effectively done by the Panchayati Raj Institutions which are functioning well in Kerala as they are closer to the people and they know where the human rights violations occur. He said that sensitization of health personnel is very essential as many people rush to the hospital and health centres with lot of expectations when in need of medical care.

The NHRC team observed that with the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and strong support from the animal husbandry sector, the incidents of suicide among farmers have abated in the district. However, it was felt that urgent solutions must be found for some of the serious problems, which are as follows:

1. The transport infrastructure is poor; there are no rail links and not enough roads.
2. Advanced medical facilities and awareness about welfare schemes for cancer and T.B. patients is lacking; a medical college in the district is the need of the hour.
3. No facilities for higher education; tribal community needs to be encouraged to send children to Anganwadi centres as all the children below six years are not going there.
4. Illicit distillation and consumption of alcohol is very high among the tribal people and there is a need for de-addiction centres for alcohol as well as tobacco in the district.
5. Timely disbursement of wages under NREGA needs to be streamlined.
6. Tribal people are marginalised, and have to be brought into the mainstream; two per cent reservation for scheduled tribes in the district is not appropriate as more then 17 per cent of the population in the district comprises tribal people;
7. Construction of a large number of incomplete housing units in a time bound manner under the tribal housing schemes is necessary.
8. Tribal people need to be given an insurance cover with timely and adequate compensation for the loss caused to their life and crops by the wild animals.
9. Separate housing for each tribal group to enable them to follow their social customs and rights.
10. Cut off year of migration of scheduled castes into Wayanad needs to be raised to 1980 as those, among them, who migrated into Wayanad after 1950 are not being issued caste certificates by the revenue authorities and are not able to get the benefits of the government sponsored schemes.
11. The distribution of APL & BPL cards needs to be rationalised as per the eligibility of the beneficiaries.