India's rights record poor: US

India's human rights enforcement record has been poor and needs improvement despite being a vibrant democracy with strong constitutional protections, the United States said in a report.

The State Department on Monday, however, said the new UPA government at the Centre has started addressing rights concerns.

While lauding the Centre for "rewriting school text books" and "addressing the aftermath of the Gujarat riots", the report reiterated its concern over the situation in the state.

"Following its electoral victory in May, the government began to address a number of human rights concerns that have arisen in recent years. For example, it moved quickly to rewrite school textbooks, in order to stress the contributions of the Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian minority communities," it said.

However, it said, the rewriting of the textbooks has not been completed, and alleged that the Gujarat government has not recalled its old textbooks or announced plans for their replacement.

"The government also began to address the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots," it said and noted that the Supreme Court had ordered local courts to reopen over 2,000 cases connected with the post-Godhra riots.

But by the end of last year, "the report on the number of cases that should be reopened had not been submitted to the Supreme Court, and only three cases related to the Gujarat rioting had completed trial in the lower level courts," it charged.

The report claimed that human rights organisations and religious groups remained concerned about allegations of witness intimidation by local leaders in Gujarat.