**Executive Summary**
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India, held a virtual conference on May 19, 2026, with State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs), Special Rapporteurs, and Special Monitors to strengthen institutional coordination. The primary objective was to streamline jurisdictional clarity under the Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act, promote the digitization of operations via the HRCNet portal, and bridge the gap between policy intent and ground-level implementation. Key action items include the immediate onboarding of remaining SHRCs to the national portal and increasing field-based interventions to protect vulnerable populations.
**Key Points / Main Content**
**Jurisdictional Clarity and Legal Framework**
* **Adherence to PHR Act:** Commissions must maintain jurisdictional clarity as per the Protection of Human Rights Act to reduce unnecessary litigation and improve service quality.
* **Concurrent Jurisdiction:** Both NHRC and SHRCs exercise concurrent jurisdiction in certain matters; however, they must avoid duplication of cases and improve information sharing.
* **Enforceability:** There is a need to enhance the legal clarity and enforceability of recommendations made by Human Rights Commissions.
**Digital Transformation and Coordination**
* **HRCNet Portal Adoption:** SHRCs are urged to digitize their functions and integrate with the HRCNet portal for data sharing and efficient complaint management.
* **Onboarding Status:** While 23 SHRCs have adopted the system, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Nagaland are yet to onboard, while Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have yet to begin processing complaints through the portal.
* **Institutional Synergy:** Improved communication between NHRC and SHRCs is required to ensure the effective implementation of orders, particularly in sensitive cases like custodial deaths.
**Field Intervention and Outreach**
* **Proactive Monitoring:** SHRCs are encouraged to increase field visits and engage directly with affected communities and vulnerable institutions such as prisons, mental health centers, and shelter homes.
* **Strengthening Accessibility:** Commissions must improve legal aid and accessibility for those unable to approach institutions independently, including women, children, the elderly, and the homeless.
* **Preventive Interventions:** Focus should shift toward regular training and capacity building for police and CAPFs to prevent violations before they occur.
**Thematic Human Rights Concerns**
* **Prison and Reformatory Services:** Priorities include reducing overcrowding, standardizing prison wages, and improving living conditions in observation and shelter homes.
* **Vulnerable Group Protection:** Specific focus is required for the rehabilitation of child laborers, protection of intersex infants, and ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities and transgender individuals.
* **Labor and Environment:** Improvements are needed in occupational safety for sanitation and mine workers, alongside using evidence-based research to address climate-related human rights concerns and pollution.
**Impact Analysis**
**State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs)**
**Impact**
SHRCs are tasked with aligning their operational scope strictly with the PHR Act and transitioning to digital complaint management systems. They are under increased pressure to demonstrate ground-level results through field engagement.
**Action Required**
Must onboard and actively use the HRCNet portal, increase the frequency of inspections (prisons, hospitals, schools), and follow up on NHRC directives to prevent the misuse of human rights platforms.
**State Governments**
**Impact**
State authorities are identified as the primary providers of the infrastructure necessary for SHRCs to function effectively.
**Action Required**
Strengthen SHRCs through improved staffing and infrastructure; implement suggested prison reforms, child protection systems, and rehabilitation models for bonded laborers.
**Special Rapporteurs and Special Monitors**
**Impact**
These stakeholders serve as the critical link between the NHRC’s policy framework and the "lived realities" on the ground.
**Action Required**
Increase coordination with SHRCs for convergence among government departments and provide thematic reports on specific human rights situations to the Commission.
**Vulnerable Populations (Children, Workers, Persons with Disabilities)**
**Impact**
These groups are the intended beneficiaries of strengthened monitoring, improved welfare delivery systems (such as PDS), and enhanced legal aid.
**Action Required**
No direct action; however, they stand to benefit from increased institutional outreach and more effective deterrents against human rights violations.
Key Entities Referenced
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC): The primary statutory authority in India tasked with the protection and promotion of human rights through inquiry, monitoring, and inter-agency coordination.
State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs): Statutory bodies at the state level that exercise concurrent jurisdiction with the NHRC to address human rights violations within their respective regions.
Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act: The governing legislative framework that defines the mandate, powers, and jurisdictional boundaries for human rights institutions in India.
HRCNet portal: An integrated digital complaint management system developed to facilitate data-sharing, improve coordination, and prevent the duplication of cases between the NHRC and SHRCs.
National Human Rights Commission
NHRC, India holds a day-long Conference of
SHRCs along with its Special Rapporteurs and
Special Monitors in 'virtual mode' in New Delhi
Chairing the Conference, NHRC Chairperson, Justice V.
Ramasubramanian advises for maintaining jurisdictional
clarity as per the PHR Act to reduce unnecessary litigation
and enable the Commissions to deliver more effective and
quality service
NHRC Member, Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi describes
the interaction between the NHRC and SHRCs as an
important initiative to strengthen coordination
NHRC Member, Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani urges SHRCs to
increase field visits and engage more with affected
communities
NHRC Secretary General, Shri Bharat Lal emphasises the
need to bridge the gap between policy intent and ground-
level implementation as well as lived realities through a
coordinated approach for creating a more effective deterrent
against human rights violations
Posted On: 19 MAY 2026 1:17PM by PIB Delhi
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India organised a day-long Conference of the State
Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) along with its Special Rapporteurs and Special Monitors in virtual
mode at its premises in New Delhi. Chairing the Conference, NHRC Chairperson, Justice V.
Ramasubramanian emphasised that India’s human rights framework is unique, as both the NHRC and
SHRCs exercise concurrent jurisdiction on certain matters in addition to their subject-specific jurisdiction.
He underlined that the country’s human rights performance is assessed collectively through the
functioning of all Commissions. Therefore, there is a need to avoid duplication of cases, improve
information sharing and promote best practices. NHRC Members, Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi,
Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani; Secretary General, Shri Bharat Lal; DG (I), Smt. Anupama Nilekar Chandra
and senior officers were present.Justice Ramasubramanian urged SHRCs to digitise their functioning and join a common integrated
HRCNet portal with the NHRC. He also cautioned the Commissions against exceeding their jurisdiction,
noting that while courts have expanded the scope of fundamental and human rights, human rights
institutions must remain guided by the definition under the Protection of Human Rights Act. He said that
maintaining jurisdictional clarity would reduce unnecessary litigation and enable Commissions to deliver
more effective and quality service. He also expressed hope for closer collaboration and future in-person
engagements among the Commissions.
Member, Justice (Dr.) Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi described the interaction between the NHRC and SHRCs as
an important initiative to strengthen coordination. He underlined the need for better communication and
coordination between them to ensure effective implementation of orders and timely delivery of benefits to
persons in distress, particularly in sensitive matters such as custodial deaths.Member, Smt. Vijaya Bharathi Sayani urged SHRCs to increase field visits and engage more with affected
communities. She said that coordination between SHRCs and NHRC Special Monitors and Special
Rapporteurs may strengthen institutional effectiveness. She also highlighted the initiative of Karnataka
government displaying SHRC contact details for public assistance.
Before this, giving an overview of the Conference, the NHRC Secretary General, Shri Bharat Lal in his
opening remarks said that human rights is a complex subject requiring collective action, close
coordination and a reconciled approach among the NHRC and its Special Rapporteurs and Special
Monitors with the SHRCs. Referring to complaints received through the Commission’s online system, he
highlighted that in the last 5 years, 4.28 lakh complaints have been received out of which majorcomplaints fall in different categories viz. Police related violations (18%), organized exploitation by
mafias (17.4%), service matters – non-payment of pensions/ salary (6%), violations of women’s rights
(5.8%), conditions in jails and prisons (3.5%), Workers rights violations (2.2%), health related violations
(2%), human rights violations in educational institutions (2%), child rights violations (1.7%) among
others.
Emphasising proactive monitoring and field-based interventions, he also highlighted the cases of custodial
deaths, abuse in shelter homes, poor living conditions in mental health institutions, manual scavenging
deaths, as well as gaps in rehabilitation and certification mechanisms for beggars, persons with disabilities
and transgender persons. He expressed the hope that such engagements and dialogues may help in
building stronger institutional coordination to bridge the gap between policy intent and ground-level
implementation, while creating a more effective deterrent against human rights violations.
Digital governance plays a crucial role in ensuring speedy and efficient redressal of human rights
violations. The NHRC has developed the HRCNet portal as a complaint management system. Its adoption
by all human rights institutions can help avoid duplication and improve coordination in handling cases. So
far, 23 SHRCs have adopted the system and are onboarded. However, the SHRCs of Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat, Jharkhand and Nagaland are yet to onboard, while the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan SHRCs,
despite being onboarded, are yet to begin processing complaints through the portal.
At the international level, human rights violations are monitored through global mechanisms, while within
the country, the NHRC, 27 SHRCs and various sectoral commissions work towards the protection and
promotion of human rights. Therefore, it is important to have a holistic picture of the work being carried
out across the country available at one place.
The two sessions of the Conference included an interaction with the SHRCs to understand their
challenges, followed by NHRC, India Special Rapporteurs and Special Monitors on their field experiences
to strengthen the human rights mechanism in the country.The Chairperson, Members and representatives of the SHRCs of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Gujarat,
Goa, Karnataka participated in the discussions besides the NHRC Special Rapporteurs and Special
Monitors who have been assigned thematic areas of human rights and zones respectively to report on the
human rights situation to the Commission for its recommendations.
Some of the important suggestions, among others, that emanated from the Conference for strengthening of
SHRCs and institutional coordination are as follows:
Strengthening the SHRCs by the state governments through improved staffing, infrastructure,
outreach, field engagement and institutional capacity to effectively address increasing complaints
relating to custodial violence, police excesses and other human rights violations;
Enhancing the enforceability and legal clarity of Human Rights Commission recommendations and
increasing public awareness regarding the mandate, powers and jurisdiction of Human Rights
Commissions;
SHRCs should join the HRCNet portal for handholding and integrated digital data-sharing with
NHRC, India to improve coordination, monitoring and avoidance of duplication of proceedings;
SHRCs and NHRC Special Monitors and Special Rapporteurs to improve mutual coordination for
convergence among government departments and other stakeholders for better accountability and
follow-up action;
Increasing frequency of coordinated field visits, inspections and institutional follow-up, including
visits to prisons, mental health institutions, de-addiction centres, shelter homes, hospitals, old age
homes and other vulnerable institutions;
NHRC and SHRCs need to strengthen outreach, legal aid and accessibility mechanisms for
vulnerable persons unable to independently approach institutions, including women, children,
homeless persons, elderly persons and persons with mental illnesses;
SHRCs to follow up NHRC directives to states to prevent misuse of human rights platforms by
fraudulent organisations, intermediaries and vested interests;
SHRCs need to further expand NHRC, India’s initiatives for human rights awareness, education and
sensitisation initiatives through academic institutions, human rights cells and community outreach
programmes;
Special Rapporteurs and Special Monitors provided excellent feedbacks and inputs from the ground. The
suggestions for the thematic and sector-specific human rights concerns are as follows:Focus may be on preventive human rights interventions through regular training and capacity-
building of police, correctional staff and CAPFs, rather than relying primarily on punitive action
after violations occur;
Prison reforms to be implemented and followed, including reduction of overcrowding, improved
living conditions, better communication facilities, standardisation of prison wages and expansion of
observation homes and shelter homes;
Ensuring proper rehabilitation of rescued child labourers, bonded labour victims and other
vulnerable children through stronger coordination, legal enforcement and awareness among district
authorities and police;
Strengthening Child Welfare Committees, child protection systems and restoration of child and
senior citizen helplines across districts and states;
Greater emphasis on mental health, leprosy and disability rights through rehabilitation, stigma
reduction, welfare access and community-based monitoring;
Ensuring protection and recognition of intersex infants, gender non-conforming children and other
vulnerable groups, including monitoring of institutional and medical practices affecting them;
Improving dignity and accessibility in welfare delivery systems, including PDS shops and
institutions serving vulnerable populations;
Using scientific and real-time environmental monitoring systems, evidence-based research and
environmental justice mapping to address pollution, water contamination and climate-related human
rights concerns;
Improving occupational safety, healthcare, insurance and welfare protections for sanitation workers,
dump-site workers, truck drivers, mine workers and other vulnerable labour groups;
Strengthening awareness campaigns and preventive mechanisms for occupational diseases such as
silicosis through safer technologies, protective measures and diagnostic infrastructure;
Improving conditions in schools, tribal hostels, hospitals, prisons and other institutions through
regular inspections, grievance redressal and monitoring mechanisms;
Improving availability of specialised teachers and inclusive educational support systems for children
with hearing, visual and other disabilities;
Replicating successful welfare and rehabilitation models, including Anganwadi-linked childcare
facilities in prison and community-based support systems, across states;
Ensuring compensation, rehabilitation and welfare support for frontline workers and disaster-
affected personnel; and
Addressing concerns relating to recruitment standards and quality of public health services as part
of the right to health framework.
***
NSK
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