1.6 The Annual Reports of the Commission, apart from presenting the reports about the overall activities undertaken by NHRC each year, also serves as a principal source of information on the human rights situation in the country. Besides these, the present Annual Report too gives an account of the actions taken by the Commission on a range of human rights issues including individual complaints, its other core concerns and achievements. 1.7 In a society as diverse as ours, the indivisibility and interrelated nature of human rights, whether civil and political or economic, social and cultural, is self-evident. Nowhere is this linkage more visible than in respect of people belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. This aspect is also well recognized in the Constitution of India. The same is true with women, children and other vulnerable groups. The problems and concerns of each of these groups were given due attention by the Commission during the period under review. 1.8 The report that follows, inter alia, deals with civil and political rights, in particular, custodial violence and torture, including deaths in custody, illegal detention, highhandedness of police, deaths in police firings and encounters, and conditions in prisons. The report then deals with economic and social rights, such as rights relating to health, food, education, rights of people belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities as well as other vulnerable groups, including women, children, disabled and elderly people; human rights education, training and awareness; the role of State Human Rights Commissions and non-governmental organizations in supporting the endeavours of NHRC-India and human rights defenders. The important cases of human rights violation under each category of rights handled by the Commission are also covered in this Report. The report also focuses on NHRC-India’s co-operation at international level with Human Rights Council, Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions and International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions. (K. G. Balakrishnan) Chairperson (Cyriac Joseph) Member 17 December, 2013 New Delhi (D. Murugesan) Member (Satyabrata Pal) Member (S.C. Sinha) Member