From the Editor's Desk

Undeniably, the issues of water conservation, crop rotation, sufficient facilities for storage of food grains and speedy transportation thereof to the nearby mandis to prevent rotting, also need to be addressed, among other aspects, on a war footing to fulfill the Governments' obligations under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA). Indeed, the answer to drought management does not lie only in the assurance that the country has sufficient stock of food grains to meet any challenges. Such responses are meaningful only when we can predictably say that drought will not last long. What if it continues for long, given the signals, we are getting, from the fast depleting ground water tables and expanding drought areas in the country? It will impact our crops and hence, our food grains stock and ultimately our Right to Food.
We, therefore, cannot sit merry just with the 'NFSA' in place, without securing the sources of sustained supply of our food. Also, as pertinently pointed out by the NHRC Chairperson and former Chief Justice of India, Justice Shri H.L. Dattu, the country needs to have a common implementation mechanism for all States to infuse clarity in the oneness of purpose for the success of nationwide welfare programmes like NFSA. The wide ranging discussions in the NHRC's National Conference on Right to Food covered various such aspects, some of which have been pegged in this issue.
Apart from the 'National Conference on Right to Food', 'Open Hearing' and 'Camp Sitting' in Bihar, the April, 2016 was another month of several activities in the NHRC. Dissemination of information about some of these events through media also received left handed compliments like 'virtual bombarding with information'.
Some may argue, how the NHRC can have a say on almost all the issues, from drought management, water conservation to right to food etc, as if these do not impact human rights. If the NHRC's concerted concerns on human rights are to be perceived as 'bombardment' by some conservationists about its jurisdiction, surely, it would need to further step up its efforts to weed out such misplaced notions about the ever expanding scope of human rights.
Undisputedly, media stands as the closest ally of the NHRC in building awareness about human rights. The idea behind the NHRC's sustained engagement with Governments, civil society, experts and media is to keep them all involved in addressing together the root causes behind human rights violations, broadly read with Rights to Life, Liberty, Equality and Dignity and other rights, guaranteed under the Constitution and by virtue of Government schemes. Therefore, what is wrong in regularly reporting and writing, with or without referring to NHRC, about human rights issues? After all, it is just a matter of adding a tinge of rights perspective, every piece of reporting will look like a story of human rights.