BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) witnessed a sharp fall in the number of complaints it received in 2020-21. The human rights watchdog received 8,677 complaints from April 2020-March 2021, which was the lowest in past 20 years. It may be due to corona pandemic.
According to official data, in the last fiscal year, 6,760 complaints were disposed of. At the end of the year, 1,917 complaints were pending. These two figures are also the lowest in past two decades.
Not a single complaint was received by Commission in April 2020, probably due to the imposition of Covid-induced lockdown in the country. In May, it received 284 complaints. The number grew to 599 in June to peak at 962 in August 2020. The pendency of cases in May 2020 was just 59, which rose to 94 in June and 126 in July.
The MPHRC public relations officer Ghanshyam Singh told Free Press that commission was constituted in September 1995. The number of complaints it received in 1996-1997 was 1,611. By 1999-2000, the figure shot up to 10,816.
The highest number of complaints was received in 2005-06 (15,655). The other years in which the number of complaints was more than 15,000 were 2004-05 and 2006-07. In the past two decades, the MPHRC received less than 10,000 complaints during three years - 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2019-20, and of course in 2020-21, when they were less than 9,000.
The pendency of cases with the Commission was highest in 2001-02, when 13,168 complaints were pending. The lowest pendency (barring 2020-21) was in 2015-16. The last fiscal year was the first time when the pendency fell below 2,000.
The Commission disposed of highest number of cases in 2004-05. The figure was 17,599. In comparison, just 6,760 cases were disposed of in 2020-21 - the lowest in past 20 years.
