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Now, a panel that will root out discrimination

The government is going to add another name to the existing list of commissions.

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Ministry of minority affairs is setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission

NEW DELHI: The government is going to add another name to the existing list of commissions. The ministry of minority affairs is setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) on the lines of the National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women and Minorities Commission and Commission for SC/ST to redress grievances relating to denial of opportunities on grounds of discrimination.

If any person from a particular community, caste, religion, sex, state, area, language etc is denied employment, education, vocational training, residence, or other opportunities due to some sort of bias he/she can approach this forum for help. 

Though on the surface the commission appears to be another of the government’s minority appeasement tricks, the draft EOC Act, 2008, has kept the doors for justice open for others as well. Without mentioning the word “minority”, the carefully-drafted EOC Act says: “A deprived group means a group of persons lacking in abilities to access basic necessities of life such as nutrition, drinking water, education, healthcare, employment, housing, credit and other constitutionally-declared conditions of welfare.” However, the biggest beneficiaries are expected to be religious minorities.

But unlike other commissions, the EOC will have more teeth. To be set up through a legislation, it will have full powers of a civil court dealing with offences under IPC section 175, 178, 179, 180. It can conduct public inquiry, summon parties, seek witness on oath, secure documents and receive evidence on affidavits. It can also conduct socio-legal audits of government bodies, public and private sector institutions. The EOC will  have the power to enforce conciliatory settlements and can approach the high court or supreme court.
 
For those found adopting discriminatory measures, EOC can fix compensations and impose sanctions, besides initiating civil or criminal court action. The EOC will use an index to identify deprived groups. It will look into complaints coming only from a group So, the complaint will not be isolated in nature.

The draft of EOC Act was prepared by an expert group set up by the ministry under the chairmanship of legal expert Madhava Menon. The group is expected to submit its report to the government this weekend and the ministry is likely to table the draft bill by the monsoon session of parliament.

p_vineeta@dnaindia.net

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