PATNA: Some 4,000 jail inmates, including women, are among lakhs of devotees who will be offering ‘arghya’ to the Sun God during the three-day Chhath festival in Bihar. And there are Muslim women too.
In 2018, some 1500 under trial prisoners had observed the Puja in various jails, the number significantly higher than the 400 who observed it in 2017.
Prison officials said arrangements have been made to facilitate the Puja in all jails, specially four central jails at Muzaffarpur, Patna, Bhagalpur and Buxar.
IG Prisons Mithilesh Mishra said, this year some Muslim women too are observing Chhath. The police administration has helped spruce up the Beur Jail in Patna and Shaheed Khudiram Bose Jail in Muzaffarpur, among others.
New clothes and fruits and other edible materials have been provided to the UTs and a record 110 women will be observing the rituals in Muzaffarpur prison. 86 women prisoners were observing in Bhagalpur jail.