20 ... ... ... ... .. T E N Y E A R S O F T H E C O M M I S S I O N I N R E T RO S P E C T ● In the next year, the Commission concentrated on the need for the provision of free and compulsory primary education upto the age of 14 years and amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 as being essential to the ending of child labour in the country. This position was reiterated in succeeding years. ● The violation of the rights of women and children was next considered from the angle of health. The issue of maternal anaemia was first identified as a human rights issue in 1996-97. Thereafter, in 2000, as indicated earlier, came the workshops and consultations on Public Health and Human Rights, and Human Rights and HIV/AIDS, both of which had direct relevance to the rights of women and children. ● In 1997-98, the Commission began its efforts to amend the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, a matter on which it submitted detailed proposals to Government in the year 2000-2001. ● In 1998-99, the Commission recommended the prohibiting of employment of children below the age of 14 years by Government servants, a matter on which appropriate orders were subsequently issued by the Central and a number of State Governments. ● The issue of "discrimination" as a cause of human rights violations was examined in great detail in the Commission's annual report for 19992000, especially in relation to gender and caste-based discrimination. A series of recommendations were made on these issues, the performance of the country being measured against the Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles enshrined in the Constitution, the international instruments to which India was a State Party, the decisions of the Supreme Court (notably in Vishaka and Others vs. State of Rajasthan), and the laws of the land. For the first time, too, the Commission examined the proceedings and recommendations of certain Treaty Bodies before which India had presented its country reports and made its own recommendations concerning the steps that Government should take. Specifically, the Commission commented on matters relating to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and discrimination affecting dalits, an issue which had been considered by the Treaty Body constituted under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In so doing, N AT I O N A L H U M A N R I G H T S C O M M I S S I O N