I emphasize the importance of our cultural and spiritual traditions for another reason. Not all the right things in society can be ensured by laws and regulations alone. Law cannot teach a person to be compassionate, caring, and sensitive to other people s sorrows and joys. And human rights cannot be secure in a society where these qualities are weak. For example, atrocities on dalits, women, poor and the weak cannot be stopped by legal methods alone.
Social maladies call for social remedies.
It is, therefore, necessary that we pay far greater attention than we have done so far to the role of education, media, and socio-cultural reforms in creating an environment in which respect for human rights becomes the natural trait of citizens and institutions. Of course, the role of the law and governmental machinery in expanding and deepening the scope of human rights can hardly be overemphasized. The National Human Rights Commission has rendered a commendable service by creating greater awareness about human rights and also by checking their gross abuses. So far, however, only ten states have set up similar commissions. I would urge those States, which have not done yet so, to follow suit speedily.