‘Prisons aren’t supposed to be a place where inmates get killed, beaten up’

Maja Daruwala, Chief Editor, India Justice Report, speaking at the Asian College of Journalism on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

Prisons are supposed to be a place where a person, who might have done something wrong, faces loss of liberty as the final and only punishment. They are not supposed to be a place for people to get killed or beaten up, Maja Daruwala, chief editor of India Justice Report, said here on Saturday.

Speaking at the ‘Colloquium on the Prison Systems’, organised at the Asian College of Journalism, she said the occupancy rate in prisons should not go beyond 100. However, across the country, there was an average of 120% to 130% overcrowding in jails. “Some prisons and sub-jails have more than 400% occupancy rate….”

Calling the situation bleak, Sashi Kumar, chairman, Media Development Foundation and Asian College of Journalism, said, “According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there are 5,73,220 prisoners in India, of whom over 75% are undertrials.”

Vijay Raghavan, professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and director, Prayas, said women prisoners faced 10 times more problems than male inmates.

‘Patriarchal system’

“This is because we live in a patriarchal system. They [women prisoners] get excluded from their families and communities once they are arrested, and lose touch with them….”

Retired Justice S. Murlidhar said, “Time after time, history has shown that muscular laws, such as Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, do not achieve the purpose of quickly bringing the culprits to trial. They only reinforce the perception of a breakdown in the system of law, as people languish as undertrials under these severe laws for several years. It only ensures that the process is the punishment….”