New Delhi: As many as 69.05 per cent of the inmates in Indian jails in 2019 were awaiting trial even as prisons spent Rs 118 per prisoner every day, a new analysis by an international human rights body stated.
Based on the latest Prison Statistics India 2019, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) analysed 10 indicators – prison population and occupancy, proportion of undertrial prisoners, period of confinement of undertrial prisoners, women and prisons (including inmates and staff), education, caste and religious profile of prisoners, prison staff, prison population offence-wise, prison inspections, expenditure on prisoners and deaths in prisons.
The CHRI analysis highlighted the 10 following facts about the state of prisons in India in 2019:
- There were 4.78 lakh prisoners and the overcrowding rate was 18.5 per cent.
- 18.8 lakh prisoners were admitted to prisons, of which 4.3 per cent were women.
- There were 19,913 women prisoners, of whom 1,543 women were with 1,779 children.
- 69.05 per cent of prisoners were awaiting trial in India, one-fourth of whom have already spent more than one year.
- As many as 116 prisoners died by suicide while 7,394 inmates suffered from mental illness.
- There were 5,608 foreign national prisoners, of whom 832 were women.
- A total of 1,775 prisoners died in prison, out of which 1,544 deaths were due to “illness” and “ageing”.
- More than 30 per cent of staff positions were vacant. Only 12.8 per cent of the total prison staff were women.
- Ratio of prisoners per prison staff was 7:1, prisoners per correctional staff was 628:1 and prisoners per medical staff was 243:1.
- On an average, prisons spent Rs. 118 per prisoner every day.
According to the CHRI report, in 2019, the overall national prison occupancy rate at 118.5 per cent was the highest in the last five years.
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Among the types of prisons, district prisons and central prisons were overcrowded with an occupancy rate of 129.7 per cent and 123.9 per cent respectively.
Among the states and union territories, Delhi has the highest prison overcrowding with an occupancy rate of 174.9 per cent.
Eight states and union territories, namely Delhi (174.9 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (167.9 per cent), Uttarakhand (159 per cent), Meghalaya (157.4 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (155.3 per cent), Sikkim (153.8 per cent), Maharashtra (152.7 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (150.1 per cent) have an occupancy rate of above 150 per cent.
In last the five years, the total prison population has increased by 14.1 per cent against an increase of 10.1 per cent in the prison capacity. In these years, the undertrial prisoners’ population increased by 17.2 per cent.
At the end of 2019, there were 4,78,600 prisoners in 1350 prisons of the country out of whom 3,30,487 were undertrial prisoners.
"The world prison population increased by 3.7 per cent from 2015 to 2018 (data of world’s prison population of 2019 is not available)," the CHRI report said.
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"From 2015 to 2018, 3,86,485 prisoners were added to the world prison population out of which 46,461 (12 per cent) were added in India. In terms of incarceration rates, at 35 prisoners per one lakh population, India stands at 211 position out of 223 countries. This shows that though India holds a major share in the world prison population, its incarceration rate is among the lowest in the world."
According to the report, in the last five years, Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland are only two states that reduced their prison population. Thirteen states and union territories increased their prison population by more than 20 per cent from 2015 to 2019. Highest increase in prison population was recorded in Sikkim (59.4 per cent) and Jammu Kashmir (57.6 per cent).
The CHRI analysis found that Hindus comprised 68.3 per cent of the total prison population against their share of 79.8 per cent in the general population, Muslims 18.3 per cent against their share of 14.2 per cent in the general population, Christians 2.9 per cent against their share of 2.3 per cent in the general population, and Sikhs 3.8 per cent against their share of 1.7 per cent in the general population.
Persons belonging to 'other' religions formed 1 per cent of the total prison population.
"In the last five years, the highest increase in the share of any religion among the categories of prisoners was the increase of Muslims in detenue prison population by 12.1 percentage points," the CHRI report stated.
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"A corresponding decrease was in the share of Hindus in the detenue prison population by 12.7 percentage points. The highest share of undertrial prisoners to total prison population of a particular religion was of Muslims at 70.8 per cent."
In terms of caste, 21.2 per cent of the prisoners belonged to scheduled caste against their share of 20 per cent in the general population, while 11.4 per cent belonged to scheduled tribes against their share of 9 per cent in the general population.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, CHRI director Sanjay Hazarika said that the analysis shows the continuing imbalance in the criminal justice system in India.
"It shows that not enough cases are being completed," Hazarika said. "The burden on the trial courts makes the entire system continue to groan under the weight of the growing caseload."
However, Siddarth Lamba, the CHRI project officer who prepared the report, said that certain states have shown improvement in some of the 10 facts highlighted.
"On the national level, seven out of 10 people are yet to be convicted but there are some states where the number is below seven out of 10," Lamba said.
"For example, Arunachal Pradesh has four out of 10 who are not convicted. Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have five out of 10 who are not convicted," he added.
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