In this blogpost, Deiya Goswami, student, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, writes about the Reality behind the Bars of Indian Jails.

“Hate the crime not the criminals”

– Mahatma Gandhi.

Every man is born free it is his work or action which makes him a criminal. Even though the prisoner is imprisoned because of his own misdeed but he deserves to get a safe, secure and healthy life.

The Forbidden Truth

The general society has a false notion about the prisons that the inmates are dangerous criminals and are a threat to the society. They should remain inside the prison with just basic rights like food, clothing, life and liberty. But sadly, little people know that the inmates live a very gloomy life, “The slaves were boys between ten and eighteen, employed as ‘helpers’, and there were scores of them. They cooked, washed utensils, cleaned rooms, fetched water and did much back-breaking labour to ‘help’ those who were paid to do these chores.”[1], was said by Kuldip Nayar, who spend some time in Tihar Jail, during the time when the emergency was invoked.

Sexual harassment of women prisoners 

Women prisoners are tortured most, they are not only beaten up by the jail authorities, but are also sexually harassed not only by the authorities but sometimes also by the fellow prisoners, and rarely any step is taken towards their protection. An incident happened in Khetri Jail, Rajasthan, where two jailers bailed out a woman and kept her for a week to rape her every day. The All Bengal Women’s Association’s report on women prisoners in Presidency Jail, Calcutta, in 1974 highlights similar incidents.[2]

In Elisaar jail, Meena had arrived in the fearful state, she was unable to walk, her rectum and the vaginal area was torn and was bleeding, she became lunatic, as she had been kept in police custody for twenty-two days after her arrest and was brutally being raped by five or six policemen. She was from a village in Nepal, and the irony was she was sentenced a ‘simple imprisonment’ for seven days, and this was what she had faced. There have been many more incidents in which sexual harassment of women prisoners were reported.

Class wise treatment

A person whether a free man, or a prisoner, have the right to healthy food, but the condition of food in these prisons is pathetic. The food quality of the jail has always been a matter of disappointment; there is a huge improvement required in this regard. The improvement in this area is being handled by government, but instead, the government is providing discriminatory services that, the people could enjoy benefit only if they have the capacity to pay for the extra benefit.

The class-A prisoners are provided with the special benefits like, they could pay for their own expenditure by depositing  a certain amount fixed by the government for enjoying special services like- morning tea, newspaper, pillow, 3 times non-vegetarian food in a week and if they are vegetarian they will be served ghee, dal, and buttermilk.

“Natural” Deaths

The environment in jail is very unhygienic. Such unhygienic and unclean environment leads to a rise in many diseases and infections, and not much attention is paid to the medical aids that should be given to these prisoners.

 Every year, a number of prisoners die in the prison because of infections which are generally minor and curable. In Seraikela Jail which has a capacity of 82 and which was being utilized to keep 400 to 800 prisoner, “143 prisoners, generally Adivasi under-trials passed on somewhere around 1973 and 1975”. Bhabani Shanker Hoota, a political dissident, who invest some energy in Rourkela Special Jail, Orissa, Emergency, lets us know of two death in legal guardianship “because of the joined negligence of doctor’s facility and correctional facility staff.” Similar are the complaints from Central Jail, Jaipur. Here, a man of 22, was sent from Karoli to Central Jail, Jaipur “for treatment”. His right arm was cracked. Was the bone uncovered, as well as around an inch of it was bulging out Furthermore, what was more awful, he had been in that state for more than 20 days when I met him. He had been visiting the prison specialist regularly, and the specialist obediently connected a yellow medication and dressed it. Why was he not sent to the city healing facility? “No police watchman to go with him to the doctor’s facility,” was the answer. (On the other hand, three days after my visit he was sent to the doctor’s facility and was worked upon.) In Karnataka, Snehlata Reddy, a genuine ceaseless asthma patient, was denied legitimate restorative treatment. She was declined parole despite the specialist’s proposal and kicked the bucket with-in a week of her discharge.

The Positive side

The prison is not a place which is to be compared to hell; it has some recreational activities also like the rehabs, which employs the inmates so that the life in jail does not stops. Once the prisoners leave the jail, they are used to working, and they also have some amount of money with them which help them to restart their lives. This is beneficial for the people who are giving imprisonment terms for long terms. These people often face desertion from their family; they have to restart their lives from ground zero level so especially for these people IGNOU courses are offered to them.

How so ever heinous crime must have been committed by that person, he is being given an opportunity for the educational facilities. The main courses that are being provided are BA, MA, and MBA etc. and other post-graduation courses. In many jails in order to provide full-fledged computer training vocational training is also provided.

In many places, training for carpentry and fabric painting is also provided. Also in many jails women empowerment by training them in weaving, making toys, stitching and making embroidery items. Wage earning and gratuity schemes and incentives are also used to reduce the psychological burden on the convicts. Recently, the Government of Himachal Pradesh had lifted ban on wearing Gandhi cap in jails. Various seminars are organized by jail authorities to enlighten the prisoners on their legal rights, health and sanitation problems, HIV/AIDS and issues of mental health, juveniles, minorities and steps to reduce the violence in prisons.[3]

Conclusion

The prisons in India needs to be well established with new and improved laws which give the prisoners a better life during their jail time. Also, there must be a central committee which should make sure that the inmates are treated well by the policemen, and every intended accused should be made to see the magistrate in the stipulated 24 hours. In my opinion the laws exists but the implementation needs to be taken care off. They should be given the basic rights necessary for human existence.

[1] http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/81nov/tihar.htm

[2] http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/81nov/khetri.htm

[3] http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l174-Prison-Reforms-In-Indian-Prison-System.html

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