Q.Discuss briefly some of the new rights claims which are being put forward in our country today — for example the rights of tribal peoples to protect their habitat and way of life, or the rights of children against bonded labour.

New claims to rights emerge when society becomes more aware of harm being done to a particular group and reframes that harm as something the state is obligated to prevent, not merely an unfortunate fact of life. …

The chapter explains that rights are not a fixed, closed list — as societies become more aware of harms facing particular groups, new claims are put forward and, over time, some come to be recognised as rights. Two examples fit this pattern well.

Tribal peoples' claim to protect their habitat and way of life rests on both grounds this chapter discusses. It rests on dignity and self-respect, because a community's land, forests, and traditional practices are not just economic resources to them but the basis of their identity and way of life; losing access to habitat through displacement or large projects threatens both their livelihood and their cultural existence. It also rests on well-being, since displacement without adequate resettlement removes the very conditions — land, forest produce, community life — that sustain a tribal community's day-to-day well-being. Framing this as a rights claim, rather than a matter the state may or may not choose to address, is exactly the kind of growing awareness this chapter describes — it turns a group's moral outrage at being excluded or displaced into a specific demand the state must recognise and act on. …