NGOകള്‍ പരാന്നഭോജികള്‍ അല്ല,സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ അനിവാര്യ ഘടകം| Retd. Justice K. Chandru

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Greetings to all of you. I'm overwhelmed for this invitation extended to me to confer the award on Sunitha Krishnan.

[00:00:09]Today is a day of festival, the Eid day, and I'm really overwhelmed by this gesture shown by Mathrubhumi.

[00:00:19]You have seen Virendra Kumar's small video show, and a very inspiring show, and some other clippings shows that he was a great fighter for social and political rights.

[00:00:33]Very rarely people connected with the press will get involved in social activities or political activities.

[00:00:41]Many times by experience, they may be in some spiritual work, never on politics on the specious ground is a neutral institution. There's nothing like neutral.

[00:00:52]In case of distress, you must stand with the people who are affected.

[00:00:57]And I saw that he is fighting against emergency.

[00:01:01]Maybe reminding them, maybe not very comfortable, but at the same time, when we as a youth, we as a student of law, we knew what happened in 1975.

[00:01:14]And today, we also knew what's happening today. We can't just shy away from what's happening today. Dr. Ambedkar finally introduced the final draft of Indian Constitution on 26th November 1949. That day is celebrated by the lawyers as the law day. Later, the government declared it as a Constitution Day.

[00:01:35]And you have a always a Hindi word, Samvidhan Day.

[00:01:39]Now, we have been celebrating Samvidhan Day because we feel that the Constitution of India is a very important, powerful weapon in the hands of the people. In fact, today leader of the opposition, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, carries a pocket edition of the Constitution. Wherever he goes, he shows the constitution.

[00:02:00]And I saw a video where he was speaking to the Bihar agricultural women.

[00:02:06]And in that meeting, he showed the constitution and said, "This is the DNA of the Indian people."

[00:02:13]I was wondering what these people who are very much unlettered, who never knew anything about constitutionary or any English language.

[00:02:23]But I saw the women very spiritedly clapping for that showing a small picture of the constitution.

[00:02:31]The result was on one side the company which is selling the constitution claims 1.55 lakhs constitution has been sold.

[00:02:41]Not bought by the lawyers or judges, but the common people have started showing interest on the constitution. And therefore, we should take the issue of constitution very seriously.

[00:02:53]And Veerendra Kumar, when he opposed the emergency, the first fundamental question was, "Will the constitution survive the test of human rights and the charter of Indian people's rights?" And And did the constitution went away and the the emergency went away.

[00:03:10]But suddenly, the present government announced Samvidhan Hatya Diwas, constitution murder day.

[00:03:17]Now, the question will be, "Who is murdering the constitution?"

[00:03:20]This should be a very important debate.

[00:03:22]Going by the spirit of Veerendra Kumar, we knew that whoever murders their our enemies.

[00:03:29]In fact, Kerala has contributed greatly not only post constitution, even pre-constitution.

[00:03:36]Some of the social issues, like exclusion, like untouchability, Kerala was the model. And we are celebrating the Vaikom centenary, where people were allowed to walk in public road without any discrimination.

[00:03:50]The post constitution, Kerala also had a significant contribution. You know, in Kasaragod there is a Edneer Mutt.

[00:03:59]Kesavananda Bharati Swamigal I think about this mutt or his other work, but he filed a case in the Supreme Court that this constitution can't be altered.

[00:04:10]The basic structure cannot be removed.

[00:04:12]And this argument was accepted by the Supreme Court by a larger bench of 13 judges. And the Kesavananda Bharati case defines as one of the charter of saving the constitution.

[00:04:24]The the charter which says that fundamental rights can be altered, but the basic structure cannot be altered. It's one issue where very important success in term of a judicial victory for the common people. And Kesavananda Bharati hails from Kerala.

[00:04:43]Whatever may be his other litigation, but the judgment that has been delivered Now, in that judgment the Supreme Court also took pains to point out what is basic structure.

[00:04:55]Constitution doesn't talk about basic structure. So, they have listed out some of the basic structure, and one of them is a preamble to the constitution.

[00:05:04]Now, the preamble to the constitution very [snorts] important because even the Kerala government has distributed to school students the first page of the constitution.

[00:05:14]What does the first page show so much?

[00:05:17]In fact, even in the uh during the emergency there was an amendment.

[00:05:22]The first page of the constitution also had two more words, socialism and secularism.

[00:05:29]India is not a mere democratic republic.

[00:05:33]Sovereign republic. It's also a sovereign, socialist, and secular democratic republic. The word socialism the word secularism shows so so importance because you know, V. R. Krishna Iyer himself was a socialist.

[00:05:49]And by saying socialism, it's not a dirty word. Maybe some judges think it's a dirty word. Fortunately, last year, uh 1 and 1/2 years back, somebody filed a case that the word socialism should be removed.

[00:06:04]Secularism should be removed.

[00:06:06]One One Balram Singh.

[00:06:08]And as usual, our Subramanian Swamy also joined the bandwagon.

[00:06:12]Fortunately, Chief Justice Gavai and Justice Khanna, both of them dismissed the case by saying that these two words have [snorts] been there for around 49 years, that's 2 years back. It is not mere words. It is written into the Constitution.

[00:06:29]Whether they did use the word specific word socialism or secularism may not be specifically mentioned, but it runs through the fabric of the Constitution, and they dismissed that case.

[00:06:41]Why I'm saying this was the word socialism that there were no socialists during the Constituent Assembly, but Dr. Ambedkar took pains to incorporate Part Four of the Constitution. And then the Part Four is a essentially a socialist charter, which no government can ignore in implementing the policies of the government. And therefore, socialism today has to be defended.

[00:07:06]Second thing is secularism. I need not go on because that will only be a diversion. But whatever may be the thing, if Balram Singh case was dismissed by saying that word socialism and secularism is an essential part of our constitutional philosophy of this country. In that sense, I want to speak about the present award winner of the today, Sunitha Krishnan.

[00:07:31]When you say Sunitha Krishnan, you want to know more about it. She's very modest, and she will not tell everything. But one good thing she has done, she has published a biography. The name of the biography is very uh uh very very significant. I am what I am.

[00:07:49]She is not what she is. She's something more than that. That's all I want to say. I also want to tell her in our open issue chapter yoga open issue there is a word "tattvamasi".

[00:08:02]You are what you are.

[00:08:04]And I'm sure this biography is one of the greatest interest for any person who's interested not knowing about her, about the role of NGOs in this country.

[00:08:15]I am coming to the fundamental question whether NGOs are a inseparable part of the nation's development.

[00:08:22]Even before the constitution, many of the social movement many of the social actions that came from the NGOs, not from any government agencies. And therefore, we should protect the support and the good role played by the NGOs.

[00:08:38]This is very most important because there seems to be a lot of mudslinging which is going on. Recently, there is a bill passed attempt to be passed in the parliament.

[00:08:50]Thanks to the solid immunity of the opposition and the people who work in the field of NGOs were able to prevent. And one good thing about the constitution is that this government doesn't have a majority.

[00:09:05]Though they may be claiming we want Char Sau Bar, they only got a Char Sau Bar.

[00:09:11]240 seats is not majority in the parliament. And therefore, the NGO the FCRA bill was stalled for the present.

[00:09:20]Why I am saying this was can you ignore the role of NGOs? If you see the constitution in the fundamental right, forget the part four.

[00:09:31]The fundamental right where right can be enforced, there are two significant fundamental right. One is that the human trafficking is prohibited.

[00:09:41]The second that you can talk about is child labor is abolished.

[00:09:46]Now, what do we see? Who is working in these areas?

[00:09:49]Who is working to prevent the trafficking? Is the government agency you can't make a law and then leave it everything. And if you see the life of Sunitha Krishnan, how many women hapless women who have been saved, protected, and their generation fully continue. Now, can the government completely ignore the role of NGOs? In fact, as a judge, I can tell you we have dealt with several cases of human trafficking and several cases of child labor. And all those cases are brought by NGOs.

[00:10:22]NGOs are not unemployed youth.

[00:10:25]NGOs unemployed youth are not cockroaches.

[00:10:28]Suddenly, we find a a chief justice saying they're all cockroaches and parasites.

[00:10:33]I am pained to see now the chief justice realized, "Don't be sentimental." When he saw 2 million people starting a party in the name of a cockroach.

[00:10:42]It is easy to debunk the work of others.

[00:10:46]And today, the NGOs have played a very, very significant role. Notwithstanding the writing of Varun Shorey or some essays by Prakash Karat. I am now believe that the government must recognize the good work of an NGO without which the government can never function.

[00:11:04]When the constitution talks about trafficking of human labor, human beings are prohibited.

[00:11:11]What is this government has done? This is one question that you would ask. And if you see how much a particular organization, Prajwala, Prajwala means eternal flame. Let the eternal flame glow all the time.

[00:11:26]And we should now recognize that as a fact.

[00:11:29]And then say, "You take child labor." In fact, I I had I dealt with the the government commission on the working of the juvenile homes in Tamil Nadu.

[00:11:40]I want to give her a copy of the book also.

[00:11:43]Now, we find that it is not enough that the government empowered to implement the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015. The act itself talks about accessing NGOs into it, but every government now keeps away from that. Now, today we have observation home, we have safety home, we have a post the post juvenile rehabilitation home.

[00:12:07]Now, virtual jails in our state.

[00:12:11]There are so many like a adult prison, there are so many breakings are there in the child home.

[00:12:16]What is the necessity?

[00:12:18]Do you ever understand? In fact, I told our social welfare minister that you may have implement a law made by the parliament, but the implementation should be in the spirit of the parliament.

[00:12:29]And unless you have co-opt people who work in this area. In fact, one of the chapter in my report I have devoted to inducting of NGOs into the running of this home for the larger welfare of the children.

[00:12:42]We must join together to work for the larger welfare because it's not my welfare or your welfare. It is in that sense I find in my report the increasing POCSO offenses against child labor in Tamil Nadu.

[00:12:56]Cases several cases dealt by her is also mentioned in her biography. Now, the POCSO cases are unexplainable.

[00:13:04]How does so many sudden increase in the If you see the National Crime Record Bureau, there is a substantial increase.

[00:13:13]The increase is only because earlier it is then underreported. Today, there are several agencies that are responsible for reporting. Therefore, there is a greater reporting. Because of the greater reporting, there's an increase in the But if you see the the inner working of this offenses against children as written by Irani's book which you may not you must read a very very interesting book on bitter chocolate about the box offenses. Most of the box offenses take place within the vicinity of the household and most of the time it is the household members who are involved.

[00:13:52]In the very substantial cases therefore it goes mostly unnoticed unless you have some NGOs who come up to take up these issues. These issues will remain forever unnoticed and never took care of by the state and therefore when this award being conferred on Suriya Krishnan I'm happy that Mathrubhumi and the Virendra Kumar Foundation has now recognized the role of individuals, the role of the NGOs, the role of a social and welfare institution in making the life more safer. It's not that they're getting any credit.

[00:14:34]The attempt by working on this kind of a unfortunate sections of women is only because at least there are somebody to take care of and that issue is also being strengthened, recognized by such a award. When awards are conferred it also depends who confers the award. The second criteria is who gets the award.

[00:14:55]Many times those who get the award also make the award more prestigious and I'm sure this award will continue to be a guiding light for people work with the areas which have never been attended to by the government. Thank you.