NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in its report has observed that pregnant women prisoners and their children are lodged among other prisoners in overcrowded jails in the country.
The committee, headed by BJP MP in Rajya Sabha Brij Lal, who is also a former IPS
officer, has recommended that the authorities concerned must ensure that pregnant women in jail should be able to give birth outside the prison and their newborn babies must be cared for with proper food, shelters, vaccination education, recreational space, and physical growth.
It has recommended that babies should be allowed to stay with mothers in jails until the age of 12. “The committee is of the view that in spite of laws for the protection of women, it is often observed that women are subjected to discrimination in various states of life, and if a woman is on the wrong side of the law her miseries increase manifold,” the report said.
The committee has expressed serious concerns that many states and UTs governments have borstal schools in their jurisdiction. “Only Tamil Nadu, and 7 other states namely Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Telangana’ have borstal schools”, it said.
It has recommended at least 2-3 borstal schools be opened in whichever state it does not exist. The panel has recommended special infrastructure for transgender prisoners.
It has been observed that states that house most of the prisoners are still below the benchmark as per the set norms. After going through a wider study, the Committee has recommended that the Government of India shall create an All-India Jail-cadre of UT.
The panel has stated that the majority of the natural deaths in Indian prisoners occurs due to heart problem, lung-related ailments, cancer, TB, etc.