Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

Rights of Women and Children
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of children, the Commission and Prasar Bharati with support from UNICEF jointly prepared a
Guidebook for the media on ‘Sexual Violence Against Children’. The main aim of the Guidebook
is to facilitate media personnel in protecting the rights of children against sexual violence for it
provides information and insights, necessary to address these and other related issues in the
media. Copies of the Guidebook were forwarded to the Department of Women and Child
Development/Social Welfare of all the States Governments/Union Territories for information
and necessary action. Copies of the Guidebook were also sent to the State Human Rights
Commissions and the Press.
8.29 One of the guidelines contained in the Guidebook is that the media should not disclose the
identity of the rape victim or the victim’s family, or any information that leads to the identification
of the victim. It was, however, noticed by the Commission that quite a few leading newspapers
in Delhi disclosed the identity of the victims. The Commission thus wrote to the Editors of the
concerned Newspapers and the Secretary, Press Council of India requesting them to prevent
recurrence of such incidents. In response to this, the Press Council of India informed that it had
taken note of Commission’s direction and had advised the press to refrain from such publications
while reporting news on victims of sexual abuse.
8.30 The Commission reiterates that the contents in the Media Guidebook brought out by the
Commission are adhered to by all media personnel while reporting cases of sexual violence
against children.
B] Prevention of Employment of Children by Government Servants:
Amendment of Service Rules
8.31 In order to prevent employment of children below the age of 14 years by Government
servants, the Commission recommended that the relevant Service Rules governing the conduct
of Central and State Government employees be amended. In pursuance of this recommendation,
the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India amended the Central Civil
Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 in October 1999 and the All India Services (Conduct) Rules,
1968 in February 2000. The Central Government also forwarded the amended rules to all States
for taking appropriate action.
8.32 Except for one State (Manipur), all the State Governments have carried out the required
amendments in the Conduct Rules of their employees. It is hoped that the Government of Manipur
would take expeditious action to amend their Conduct Rules.
C] Child Labour
8.33 The issues of Child Labour remained major concern of the Commission during the period
of report. The Commission has been making State-wise review of Child Labour situation since
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