The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently asked states and UTs to file reports on difficulties being faced by prisoners, especially women inmates and their children, and undertrials in Indian jails.

Issues specifically faced by women prisoners like “overcrowding, lack of basic amenities and healthcare facilities” in jails were brought to its notice by Special Monitors and Rapporteurs following visits to jails across the country and complaints, according to an official statement.

Taking suo moto cognizance, the Commission issued notices to Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to submit reports within four weeks of the order.

Women prisoners, their specific concerns

There are issues common to both men and women prisoners in jails. However, women have to also deal with basic issues like the availability of sanitary napkins.

Apart from overcrowding and lack of basic amenities and healthcare facilities, NHRC says that women prisoners face concerns like the violation of the rights to dignity and safety, increased violence against them causing mental distress, unhygienic conditions without adequate toilet, sanitary napkins, clean drinking water facilities and poor quality food resulting in malnourishment particularly in the pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The lack of educational opportunities to the children of women prisoners living in jails with them, non-implementation of welfare programmes, including legal aid, vocational training and rehabilitation, are the other issues faced by them, according to reports.

As per ‘Problems faced by Female Accused in Prisons’—an article in Law Education Platform Legal Bites—“problems faced by women accused in jail during the under-trial period are uncountable and many of them remain unsolved.”

“In majority of cases, undertrial female accused is detained in a jail where both male and female lives, sometimes cells are separate but female prisoners feel uncomfortable.

“In India, most of the female accused are young, they come in the age group of 18 – 55 years. Most of them fall under the menstruation age group. During the menstruation period, female accused should be provided with proper sanitation facilities with proper menstrual hygienic products.

“To maintain hygiene, female accused should be provided with sanitary pads etc. But it is alleged by the female accused that jail officials charge for sanitary pads. Lack of sanitary pads leads to the use of unhygienic means like cloth, newspaper etc.

“The rights of women prisoners are being violated despite various provisions in the Constitution of India as well as International Conventions. India has taken various steps like prison reforms, jail manuals etc. to protect the rights of female accused as well as convicted. But in reality, most of the provisions remain on pages,” author Ajay Kumar says in the article published in May 2023.

Overcrowding–the most common problem

Poor living standards and overcrowding is the most common problem faced by both male and female prisoners.

The size of cells and barracks is prescribed and also the number of persons assigned to them. But due to overcrowding, maintaining that number is not possible and the main reason is that the majority of prisoners are undertrials.

Overcrowding leads to hygiene, health and also severe mental issues, the reasons why the NHRC wants to know the number of women prisoners in jails, both convicted and undertrials. It also wants to know the number of women undertrials languishing in jails for more than a year and also those with babies.

The NHRC has also asked for the number of male undertrials and those languishing in Jail for more than a year.

Undertrials

The NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) publishes reports on various aspects of crime, including statistics on undertrials and according to available data, the number of undertrials in India continues to be a significant issue, with a large number being detained for over a year.

According to the NCRB’s Prison Statistics India 2022, undertrials make up a significant portion of prison population—as much as 75.8 per cent—thus highlighting the large number of individuals awaiting trial in judicial custody in India.