Human rights and social aspects of tourism

Tourism is the world fastest growing industry and every nation is getting lots of socio-economic benefits from this industry in the form of employment generation, poverty elimination, foreign exchange earnings, international understanding and many more. Tourism industry is spreading its wings in different shapes and forms i.e. religious tourism, spiritual tourism, health tourism, educational tourism, adventure tourism, sports tourism, sex tourism, eco-tourism etc. But, in the race of this development, human rights are often neglected and violated. Tourism is no exemption from this and becoming a more serious issue for tourists as well as for host population in tourist destinations. For meeting the innumerable requirement and demands of tourists and business the host population/communities are suffering severely. Tourism activities are usually based on existing unequal, exploitative relationships and consequently, the poorer and more vulnerable groups in the destination suffer from the negative impacts of tourism. Its impact on the environment, life style, host sentiments and emotions, livelihood of vulnerable communities and their culture are immense. The inequalities and exploitation of the poor by powerful rich is inherent to the worst form of tourism practices. This results the serious violation of various rights of the local communities. Keeping this aspect in mind in this paper titled `Human Rights and Social Aspects of Tourism in India’ an attempt has been made to through some light on human rights of tourists, dignity of tourists, exploitation of the host population and overseas tourists at the tourist destinations. Further an attempt has been made to identify the areas which need the immediate attention of the Centre, state and international human rights commissions.