Human Rights Awareness vital for creating a culture of human rights

Spreading Human Rights awareness among the common people in their language is vital for creating a culture of human rights. Unless people are aware about their human rights they cannot protect their rights or seek redressal when it is violated. The language of Human Rights Awareness literature, thus, should be simple enough to be understood by common people. NHRC, Chairperson Dr. Justice A.S.Anand said this at the concluding session of the two-day National Seminar in Hindi on the Concepts of Human Rights in Indian Culture & Importance of Human Rights Education in India, organized by the Commission in New Delhi on 2-3 March 2006. He said that all religions are inspired in their own way by an innate concept of Human Rights. He emphasized that rights and duties are interlinked. While rights without duties lead to arrogance, duties without rights lead to slavery. Hence, there is a need to maintain balance between rights and duties, he stressed.
The Chairperson also gave away awards to the winners of the creative writing competition on Human Rights in Hindi. This award scheme was initiated by the NHRC in 1998 envisages six awards of which three are given for original writings in Hindi and three for translation into Hindi on works from other Indian Languages and English. Smt. Pushpa Sinha was adjudged the first prizewinner in the category for the best original work in Hindi. The Second prize was given to Shri Satya Narayan Sabat, while the third prize was awarded to Dr. R.C.Mishra. No entry was considered suitable for awards in the translation category for the year 2004-05.
The Commission's Publications viz. Know Your Rights series booklets in Hindi, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in Hindi, Report on the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes by K.B. Saxena which have been translated into Hindi were released on the first day of the seminar by renowned Hindi writer and critic, Prof. Namvar Singh, who was also the Chief Guest at the inauguration.