NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked all the states and the Union Territories (UTs) to give financial assistance from a Central fund to poor prisoners, who are unable to secure bail or release from jails on account of their inability to pay the fine awarded to them by various courts due to their financial situation.
In an identical communication to the states and the UTs, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked them to avail the funds made available by it from where they can draw an appropriate amount to provide benefits to the eligible prisoners to secure bail.
It is to be noted here that the MHA provides funds to the states and the UTs through the Central Nodal Agency (CNA), which is administered by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
In the letter the MHA said, “As you are aware, this Ministry had introduced the ‘Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme’ in May, 2023, with the objective of providing financial assistance to states and UTs for extending relief to poor prisoners, who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine on account of financial constraints.”
It is, however, noticed that despite repeated follow-up, funds have mostly remained used as many states and UTs have not identified the eligible prisoners and have not provided the benefit of the scheme to them, the MHA said, adding that though a few of states and UTs used the funds, the overall implementation of the scheme has not been very encouraging.
The MHA has already issued guidelines and a SOP for the implementation of the scheme and under these the states and the UTs were advised to constitute an ‘empowered committee’ in each district and an ‘oversight committee’ at the state headquarters level. These committees are responsible for sanctioning financial aid to the eligible prisoners, it said.
The MHA said that during the several meetings held with the states and UTs to review the implementation of the scheme, its importance was consistently emphasised, highlighting its potential to bring relief to the poor prisoners, who remain incarcerated due to financial constraints. “It may be appreciated that effective implementation of the scheme can not only help mitigate the problems faced by the poor prisoners, but also contribute towards reducing overcrowding in prisons,” the MHA noted.
“The states and UTs are, therefore, requested to make concerted efforts in identifying the eligible prisoners as per the guidelines of the scheme and hold regular meetings of the empowered committees in each district for providing relief to the poor prisoners,” it said.
As per the data released by the India Justice Report-2025, the national average occupancy rate in jails is more than 131 percent. The number of undertrial prisoners is estimated to be 76 percent of the entire prison population. It suggested that the prison population is expected to reach 6.8 lakh by 2030, even though the capacity in jails is likely to grow to 5.15 lakh only.