The National Human Rights Commission( (NHRC) has directed the Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Government of India to consider the issues of stress and mental health at workplace and ensure needful action.Earlier the NHRC directed the Secretary, Ministry of HRD and the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel and Training, Government of India to consider the concerns relating to the right to employment and ensure the needful actions.Acting on a petition filed by noted human rights activist and Supreme Court advocate, Radhakanta Tripathy, the NHRC passed the orders.The petitioner, Tripathy, said that the right to life and right to education has no meaning without right to employment and right to employment needs to be ensured with right to mental health at the workplace.Citing two examples of suicide by top executives in India, Tripathy raised the issue of workplace stress and mental health challenges. He quoted the death of 38-year-old techie Karthikeyan, on September 2024, due to heavy workload and stress.This incident happened after the death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant with Ernst & Young named Anna Sebastian Perayil who died by suicide due to extreme work pressure on July 20, 2024.Tripathy requested the intervention of the Commission for the provision of mental health care of the employees of government as well as private sectors in India, regular meetings of the grievance redressal committees among other measures.In another case related to right to employment, Tripathy, referring to ‘India Employment Report-2024’, has drawn the attention of the NHRC towards issue of lack of employment among the youth, especially from vulnerable strata, who are immensely suffering. The report is based on official data, largely the Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS) and Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS), conducted by NSSO.
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