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What should be given primary importance, Human Rights or Public Safety?
What should be given primary importance, Human Rights or Public Safety?
The situation that we are now facing is a world wide issue and have not yet found a solution. The best thing a person can do is to self-isolate themselves from others who may or may not have been affected by the deadly virus COVID-19. Unfortunately we see that there is a lot of issues going on with the police and the public. This is because the public, not generally but some of them, are not ready to accept what the government says. This happens maybe because they are not aware of how serious the situation is. As a result we see photos and videos on social media of police beating people and making them do all sort of things as punishment so that it may deter others.
In parallel to this, there are Human Rights which we hold close to us. We now see many human rights activists speaking against the police force, asking government to not hurt those people who wonder outside. It is true that causing injuries is a violation of human rights. But in a pandemic situation, more than human rights we must give concern to the public safety. Because of one person’s mistake, a whole nation may have to suffer. That is what we see today.
Government is trying their best to help everyone come out of such a dreadful scenario. As citizens we have the duty to help them in such a situation. Going out for necessaries and getting punished is without a doubt violation of human rights. But other than that, going out just for fun is really unnecessary. Public Safety must be given the primary importance.
The Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have already urged the police forces to act in restrain while maintaining law and order during the lock down. Imposing a heavy fine or jail term under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 will be much better than physically injuring and violating human rights. Besides Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code will also be charged which deals with disobedience to order promulgated by public servant.
As part of public safety, the government must ensure that the poor people, who are the major part affected by the pandemic, gets enough food, water and other basic necessaries. For this, on March 26th, Central Government announced 1.7 trillion rupees to provide free food and cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable populations, and health insurance for healthcare workers, among other things.
As part of protecting the Human Rights and Public Safety at the same time, the authorities in India are currently doing their best to help the people without any discrimination.
From another perspective, we now see some people attacking the medical staffs and authorities out of fear. A few days back, in Indore, some medical teams were attacked by an unruly mob and police had to intervene to control them. Human rights are applicable to everyone including the medical staffs. We see that they are being victimised to violation of human rights at a very great extent. Without a prescribed treatment they have to treat the patient and in turn some people react very terribly.
In such a time, there is a very thin line between protecting and violating human rights and public safety at the same time. Hurting physically for going out for necessaries is not right. Going out unnecessarily without thinking about the public safety is also not right. Also everyone must remember that we are together in this.
