Odisha Ranks Third in Harassment Of Human Rights Activists In Country

Bhubaneswar: Odisha ranks third in harassment and attack on human rights activists in the country between 2017 and August 2020. This was informed by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in the Lok Sabha recently.

Ironically, the minister gave the information in reply to a question raised by the MP of ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, Pinaki Mishra. The senior BJD leader wanted to know the statewise details of the complaints received by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from the rights activists.

As per the data presented by Reddy, Odisha is just behind Tamil Nadu which is ranked second and the topper Uttar Pradesh. The NHRC received as many as 306 complaints of harassment from the rights activists during the period.

Uttar Pradesh led the list with 52 letters of complaints of harassment followed by Tamil Nadu with 33 cases. As many as 26 human rights groups and individuals approached the national rights panel with allegations of harassment in 3 years, the minister said.

According to unofficial sources, the human rights situation in Odisha is far more grim than the official figures. According to Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), 6 rights activists have been killed in the state since 2008. The CHRI is an independent and non-profit international organisation which works for practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth.

Similarly, the Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhiyan, a forum of rights activists in the state, claimed that there were 54 cases of murderous assaults on the activists between 2011 and 2019.

Following are a few recent cases of attack on rights activists:

• Ranjan Kumar Das of Talasanga village in Kendrapada district was found murdered on January 31, 2020
• Brutal assault on Satyabarata Satpathy in Bhadrak in October, 2020
• Death of Abhimanyu Pandya in Kandhamal in December, 2019 under suspicious circumstances