World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

ASIAcombat. The government failed to effectively implement policies that provide forfree and compulsory primary education.Access to Pain ReliefHundreds of thousands of persons with advanced cancer suffer unnecessarilyfrom severe pain because the Indian government has failed to ensure access tosafe, effective, and inexpensive pain drugs. More than half of government-supportedregional cancer centers do not offer palliative care or pain management,even though more than 70 percent of their patients need it. Numerous patientstold Human Rights Watch that their suffering from cancer and other conditionswas so severe that they would rather die than live with the pain. The governmentalso failed to integrate palliative care into HIV treatment programs.Sexual Orientation and Gender IdentityBuilding on a 2009 decision of the Delhi High Court, government officials promisedto drop section 377—a provision too often abused to treat consensual homosexualconduct between adults as a crime—in proposed amendments to thePenal Code.India’s Foreign PolicyDespite its considerable influence, India continues to miss opportunities to raiseconcerns about even egregious human rights violations in other countries or toassert leadership on human rights at the United Nations. In several cases, it hasactively opposed international efforts to pressure human rights violators.India played an important role in Afghanistan, providing aid for humanitarian andinfrastructure projects. In July the Foreign Minister called on all parties to abjureviolence, end links to terrorism, and accept the “democratic and pluralistic valuesof the Afghan Constitution, including women’s rights.”After the conclusion of a Sri Lankan military campaign to defeat the Tamil Tigersin 2009, India provided humanitarian assistance for the rehabilitation of displacedpersons and called for political reconciliation. India, however, has contin-319