IndiaTomorrow.net,
Guwahati, June 27: Representatives of several NGOs and groups working in the fields of human rights, women empowerment, social development, and education accorded a rousing reception in Guwahati to Salma Hussain, young human rights activist of Assam, who was the only one to be selected from the entire North East India for the prestigious summer internship with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Delhi from May 23 to Jun 21, 2016. All together 50 youngsters were selected for the internship from across the whole country on the basis of merit and their credentials in the field of human rights activism.
Abdul Kalam Azad (Jhai Foundation), Aman Wadud (MY-FACTS), Nurul Laskar (Friends of ANREM), Rezwan Hussain (AMP Assam Chapter), and Saddam Hussain (SAVE, BTAD) honoured Salma with fulam gamosa at the outset of the program on Saturday. Her other well wishers welcomed her with flower bouquets.
While addressing the gathering, Salma said, “It was a wonderful learning experience. NHRC have really given a very good platform to the students to learn about the Commission in depth and different ways to serve our society.” Salma explained the salient features of the schedule of the programme where sessions were conducted by different learned personalities, visits arranged to different institutions, project works done on different topics related to human rights with reports to be submitted after every visit, and familiarisation visits to Central Registry and Madad.
She stated that the internees were taken to the Tihar Jail. “We witnessed the Tihar factory which produces really wonderful goods. The prisoners are engaged in different small industries like handloom, bakery, carpentry etc inside the jail. They are paid for their work as well. Another was our police station visit. We were sent in different groups. Our group went to the Kotwali Police Station, Chandni Chowk. We got to know how a police station functions. Some of the police officers even shared their problems with us.”
Hon’ble Justice HL Dattu, Chairman, NHRC & former Chief Justice of India; Justice D Murugesan, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court; and Satyanarayan Mohanty, Secretary General of NHRC were present at the valedictory function of the NHRC programme held on Jun 21, 2016 in New Delhi. Justice Dattu advised the internees to be “good human beings first because at the end this is what that is really going to matter.”
In summing up, Salma said, “I have learnt a lot throughout this one month long internship. I will not let this knowledge go in vain. Creating awareness on human rights is a crucial step in the protection of the same. Unless the people are aware of their rights they will hardly be able to enforce them. Therefore I will do my best in this field which I have been associated with for a long time and this time with better ideas.”
