Data shared by the government indicates that the number of complaints regarding human rights violations filed with the NHRC has reduced by almost 40% between 2015-16 & 2020-21. The fall in complaints is due to the more than 50% fall in complaints from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha & Haryana. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was established for the protection and promotion of human rights in India. It was established as a statutory body under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA). The act further lays down the functions and powers of NHRC. This includes – conducting enquiries into the petitions received regarding violation of human rights, intervene in any human right violations, review the safeguards, etc. The NHRC comes up with recommendations in these various cases, where it feels that the officials have not taken appropriate action in tune with the human rights violations and can also recommend compensation. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), highlights that there have been many human rights violations by the government against various people and groups who have voiced their opinion contrary to the government’s stand. It also highlights the human rights violations against the marginalised communities due to COVID-19 induced lockdown, where-in they had a loss of access to basic needs. A report by Amnesty International further asserts the observations made by HRW, regarding the violations against the dissenters of the government policies. The report further highlights the plight of the migrants & marginalised sections during the lockdown and also the apathy showed by the law-enforcement authorities and governments towards violations and crimes committed by vigilante groups. We had earlier written a story regarding the human rights violations against the Human rights defenders and analysed the trends in the complaints lodged, resolved, etc. In a response provided in Rajya Sabha in March 2021, the government stated that PHRA-1993 was amended in 2019 to strengthen the functioning of NHRC, which includes increasing the personnel in NHRC among others. We take a look at the trends in the complaints received by NHRC over the years. Declining trend in the number of complains registered with NHRC In the same response in Rajya Sabha, the government furnished the details of the complaints received by the Commission. NHRC also maintains a live dashboard of the complaints received by the institution. As per the dashboard, over 85 thousand cases were disposed of between 01 April 2020 and 15 April 2021. During this period, 78.9 thousand new complaints were received while around 12.4 thousand cases are under process. As per the information provided in the Rajya Sabha, during the year 2015-16, NHRC received 1.17 lakh complaints from across the country. In the ensuing two years, there has been a steeper fall in the number of new complaints received in a particular financial year. During 2016-17, the number of complaints with NHRC fell to 91.8 thousand which further fall to 79.6 lakh thousand in 2017-18. Although the number of complaints increased in 2018-19 to 89.5 thousand, the number fell again in 2019-20 with only 76.6 thousand cases registered in 2019-20. As per the latest information provided in Rajya Sabha, only around 68.4 thousand cases were registered until 28 February 2021, for the year 2020-21 i.e., in the 11 months period. The trend of the last few years does indicate an overall decline in the number of complaints received by the NHRC. The decline in the number of complaints is contrary to the reports presented by various Human rights organizations across the world that talk about increased rights violations. One of the plausible explanations could be a lack of awareness in seeking the assistance of NHRC and other reasons such as coercion by authorities not to approach the commission. The fall in the number of complaints can be attributed to the declining trend in U.P, Haryana & Odisha During 2019-20, there were 32.6 thousand complaints registered from Uttar Pradesh. This constitutes around 43% of the total complaints that were registered across the country in the year. The proportion has dipped compared to the previous years with the cases in U.P constituting 48.5% (2017-18) and 46.8% (2018-19). The effect of the decline in complaints from the U.P is reflective in the overall decline of new complaints received at the national level. In 2015-16, around 49.7 thousand complaints were registered with NHRC from U.P alone. Odisha and Haryana are the other two states which have had a higher number of complaints with NHRC. Even these states have shown a decline in the number of complaints by NHRC in recent years.