In December 2011, a 16-year-old boy was found by the Karnataka State Commmission for Protection of Child Rights chained to a window at the Sampigehalli police station. When the team arrived at the station, they found the little boy sitting on a blanket with a chain fastened to the bars of a window. He had been in there for three days, had been badly beaten with fresh bruises all over his body and was clearly in pain.
His father, a welder, said his son had gone out to a pharmacy one evening when he was picked up by the police, who claimed that the boy was a thief. An alarming story made worse by just how commonplace it has become. It is cases like this that the South India Cell For Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM), founded by Mathews Philip, will take up. Before he started SICHREM, Mathews was a member of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, serving as its general secretary from 1993 to 1996. Before that, he was with Citizens for Democracy and Amnesty International.
“I was always involved in human rights work, mainly through these platforms,” says Mathews. “What I found was that the members of these commissions have regular jobs, and devote only their holidays and free time to this work. SICHREM was established to facilitate full time work on human rights, bringing more professionalism into the field. The idea was to have a combination of activism and professionalism.” Mathews’ passion for human rights began early on in his life. His father, a government official, was involved with social work. “My father founded the local library in our hometown and was a very good public speaker. That was the kind of orientation I got growing up," Mathews says.
In school and college, he found that human rights violations were close to his heart and by the time he embarked on a career, he knew what he wanted to do. Mathews founded SICHREM 1995. Today it has become a pillar in the world of human rights protection. “There are two main aspects to our work at SICREM,” says Mathews. “The first is human rights education and the other is monitoring.” The education part involves conducting a number of training programmes for different groups of people.
“We organise an average of 10-15 programmes a month,” explains Mathews. These training programmes are conducted for teachers in about 180 schools across Karnataka so that they can, in turn, teach the children. On occasions like International Human Rights Day, Day Against Torture, Child Rights Day and Women's Day, volunteers from SICHREM visit colleges across the city to spread awareness. “I believe human rights can be taught from pre-school, for it is, in essence, a set of values that all of us have to live by, to be happy in this world," Mathews believes.
The monitoring and fact-finding programmes involve the documentation of various cases, and the resulting report becoming a vital weapon in the victim's fight for justice. Victims of human rights abuses are helped to file complaints and present their case to various human rights commissions etc, as also the courts if necessary with the help of a team of legal volunteers
Providing legal aid quickly grew into one of the major limbs of SICHREM's work, much of it free for those who cannot afford to pay. SICHREM also initiates campaigns and lobbies to bring about changes in policy matters. A free helpline enables victims and witnesses to call in at any time.
SICHREM's volunteer lawyers also visit one slum a month to meet and talk with the people there and get a first-hand look at their problems. “This clinic has become a contact point for us to find and follow up on cases," explains Mathews.
The Right to Education Act, which reserves a quota in all schools for poor students whose fees will be paid by the government, had them hooked from the start. “This year, the focus is on the implementation of the act in Karnataka and that has become an important project for us of late," says Mathews.
It’s the vision of a world without fear where every human being can live comfortably in his own skin, exploring his potential and being the best he can be. Mathews Philip is on a noble mission, working toward the good of many by ensuring the good of each one.