Recently, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana remarked, “As a welfare State, we are obligated to provide women prisoners with programmes and services that enable them to effectively reintegrate into society, on an equal basis with men.”
Women inmates constitute the minority of the prison population; and let alone the pandemic situation, there is no denying that even in the normal times also their condition is mostly difficult and not so conducive for human survival.
However, as a society we have very little attention towards this fact. Going by the data provided by the Prison Statistics India Report 2019, most of the women inmates in the Indian prisons are illiterate or semiliterate and are susceptible to suffering being deprived of basic rights. The other reason for such deprivation is that they are mainly from rural areas and have no legal awareness and, for the same reasons, have little access to bail or even lawyers. Besides, most of them are from the lower strata of the society, i.e., about 85% of them are from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
And adding on to that, under the pandemic situation, they have been bereft of the opportunity offered by the system of Mulakat, where both family and lawyers could visit women prisoners. Apart from this, as the trials have almost stopped, the wait for freedom and justice has been a distant dream for them. This has resulted in an increase in the duration of suffering for women prisoners. And not only this, lack of contact with family, children and relatives also affects them psychologically.
In many cases, it is observed that their worries for their children increase manifold as mostly they are the caregivers for their children as their husbands are either absent or turn out to be dysfunctional fathers for their children.
The National Alliance on Prison Reforms has identified the lack of knowledge about right of bail as the main problem. Another problem in women prisoners getting bail is that even though they have knowledge of bail, they are not even able to apply for bail owing to lack of requisite documentation or absence of family members able to stand as surety. Under such circumstances, it is suggested that social organisations of repute and credibility be allowed to stand as surety for bail or furlough for women prisoners.
Besides this, with regard to the relevant provision of law, women prisoners over the age of 60, pregnant women and those with terminal illnesses may be considered for release under the pandemic situation.
Given the plight of the women prisoners, it is necessary that bail applications are liberally considered, access to legal aid is optimised and special fast-track courts and rehabilitation facilities are introduced and the formalities for bail or furlough should be made less complex.
Besides, taking into account the vulnerabilities of women prisoners, a coordination apparatus should be brought into place by constituting a team of jail authorities, legal aid workers and social workers to ensure unhindered exercise of legal rights by women prisoners and for due protection of their interests.
Fact remains that even after the women prisoners are released either on bail or upon acquittal, they face difficulty in reintegrating into the society or getting suitable employment, much necessary for their survival. And in many cases, it is seen that their families are also not interested to take them back. Under such circumstances, they become vulnerable to many forms of exploitation, including sexual and exploitation of labour.
So, the best way to help them out of this is by immediately releasing money earned by them through doing jobs or even by providing them small stipends (only in fit cases) so that they can choose the correct path to reformation through dignity in the post-prison life.
In the last one and a half years, we have been forced under the new circumstances those have come up due to the pandemic and have ventured in to doing many old things in new and effective ways. So why to shy away from venturing into prison reforms and what could be better than starting with improving the condition of the women prisoners languishing in the prisons across India!
(The writer is a lawyer and public policy expert and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law and Media Studies at School of Mass Communication, KIIT deemed to be University. He can be reached at sjyotiranjan3@gmail.com)