“Women Prisoners And The Challenges They Face In Prison

System In India”

Synopsis
Subject- Criminal Justice And Human Rights

Submitted to

2019-2020

Submitted By: Submitted To :

Sandeep Kumar Miss Divya Salim
LLM 24 (Asst. Professor)

National Law Institute University

Introduction
Women in India are treated as Goddess, History is a witness as to how women have gone
through various ups and downs, but now the scenario is changed with respect to change in
society and lots of changes can be seen in the status of women. The status of women in the
country of India in ancient times was quite high as compared to the current scenario. If the
status of women in the Vedic period is considered they had a good status. The Status of women
was higher than the men. Women had more respect and equal opportunities as well as honor to
develop morally, socially and intellectually. It was completely on their will to choose their own
path in life. But after the Vedic period, the condition of women declined due to the emergence
of many evils in Indian society for example Child marriage, Sati system, restrictions on the
marriage of widows which ultimately lowered the status of women. It had been considered that
women have lower status than men by Manu. There was no improvement which can be seen
related to status of women in society till Mughal but minor improvement can be seen during
the British period. During this time many reforms and movement which brought little
improvement in women’s status. Many evils that were present in society were diminished. Now
women in India have all rights that are equal to men. But due to certain wide social norms,
traditional and wide corruption, especially illiterate and poor people and weak implementation
of the laws in practical life. It can be seen that despite having every right woman are facing
many problems whether it be in society or family.

Traditionally women were considered to be one of the main pillars of the family as being the
important person in the family but due to revolutions like Industrialisation, urbanization,
modernization in the society, the whole traditional system, and the societal system had been
changed culturally, socially, economically. Women are now taking part in every kind of job.
India’s society is termed as Patriarchal society so female and their group is subordinated and
harassed and violated by the men in the family and in the field of work. In every sphere of life,
she is being treated as lower than men. The reason behind this is all elements and components
of social change. These changes have removed the social stability from the arena of society
and resulted in new pathetic situations and other new problems. The emergence of these new
problems in the society has transformed the society as family disorganization, a higher level of
dissatisfaction, marital discords, and frustration. Ultimately failed to adjust with the
environment which forced each and every woman to carry out certain activities of criminals
and become an offender. When these women commit the crime they have to go to prison as a
sentence to punishment. Before convictions of female offenders and entering into prison, the
women offender faced lots of challenges in society and after conviction when sent into prison
they face numerous challenges that can shake the heart of every rational individual. Because
our prison is still working traditionally, prison authorities are not well trained and they do not
bother regarding the rights of women and they are not even following their moral duties inside
the prison while treating any female offenders. Women prisoners are the women who are
offender of any crime and they are confined in the prison for reforming their criminal behavior.
It is duty of the prison authorities to facilitate all the necessities of women prisoners so that it
can help them to transform their behavior from bad to good. They must get all necessary things
along with a good favorable environment for survival.

Statement of problem:
The country like India, the women’s status has appeared low. India has a patriarchal social
system where Females are dominated by males in some phases of life. When torture and
violations by males on females reach on the top, the female tends to commit the offense. The
ratio of committing a crime is low but the ratio is increasing day by day not only in India but
also around the world. Therefore it is needed for the study of incarcerated women and criminal
women. It is found that the state of women prisoners is miserable and worst. As in prison,
women face torture, troubles and various challenges. The pathetic condition can be found
through various reviews regarding studies conducted by many social activists and agencies and
NGOs. The women prisoners have to go through the harsh environment and lacking facilities.
These conditions inside the prison are humiliating and inhuman. Most of the women inmates
were addicted to drug abuse, disease and ill but prison authorities did nothing to overcome with
this ill-treatment within the prison and they did not come with any recovery mechanism.
Therefore, it is important to study the condition of women prisoners and the challenges they
face in prison system in India in present scenario. So that women must be safe and must not be
affected by cruel conditions and harsh environment of prison.

Literature Review:
The researcher has collected some reviews correlated to his research problem which are as
follows:-
 Ahuja (1967 - 68) – According to the study conducted by Ahuja where 325 female
offenders selected randomly from the prison of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab
 to know the nature of the crime committed by female prisoners and the causes behind
it that compelled them to do so. In his study, he found that about 63 percent women
were convicted for the charge of murder and around 4 percent for theft, about 5 percent
for excise offenses, about 4 percent for kidnapping and vagrancy, about 3 percent for
causing the act of grievous hurt and 2 percent have committed some other offenses.
According to his study, the reason behind the offenses was maladjustment, conflict
related to family and between the relations, due to some poor economic conditions and
also due to some provocations and stress which was not because of criminal tendencies.
The imprisonment and release on probation were the methods used to give punishment
to them.
 Penal Reform and Justice Association (2002) – According to study conducted the
prison of Hyderabad it was found out that the women prisoners were facing several
problems in prison and the main concern for their problems was about the future of
their dependent children which were residing with them within the prison premises. So
in the study, it was found that the children along with their mothers were suffering the
same problems as they were not getting adequate food and were also not getting the
medical facilities. They had no contact with their family members.
 Kaushik and Sharma (2005) –conducted the study in which they included the living
conditions and consciousness of female prisoners about human rights within India.
Their study was based on our study of 150 women convicted who were imprisoned in
Jaipur central jail. The study showed that women were living in a very miserable
condition in prison and they were facing lots of challenges as unhealthy food, lack of
available proper medical health care, lacking sanitation, less number of bedding and
bathrooms and no educational means were present. The women prisoners were not
satisfied with the behavior of police officials and with the provided facilities to the
dependent children. The women inmate age-group of 35-36 years were mostly who
were convicted for numerous crimes such as the murder of their husbands and close
relations.

Hypothesis:
Though there is the number of rights available to women prisoners guaranteed under
Indian Statutes these rights are at stake. Women are still suffering from the harsh
conditions and problem in prisons. The prison's authority is not working with respect
to Indian Statutory Provisions.
Research Questions:
The research questions of the present study are as follows:-
1) What are the crimes that are committed by women?
2) What are the causes and conditions that compel women to commit an offense?
3) What are the challenges that women prisoners face in the prison system in India?

Research Objectives:
 To study the rights of women prisoners.
 To know the offenses against women prisoners inside the prison.
 To examine the benefits which are available to the women prisoner in special
circumstances.
 To study the challenges that women prisoners face in the prison system in India.

Tentative Chapterization:
Chapter 1

 Introduction

Chapter 2

 Women prisoners and the behavior of prison authority

Chapter 3

 Rights of women prisoner in India

Chapter 4:

 Statutory provisions relating to prisoners in custody and government policies and

program

Chapter 5:

 Conclusions and suggestions

 Bibliography

 Ahuja, R. (1969). Female Offenders in India. Meerut. Meenakshi Prakashan.

 Kaushik, A. & Sharma, K. (2009). Human Rights of Women Prisoners in India: A Case Study
of Jaipur Central Prison for Women. Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 16(2), 253-271.

 Jaishankar, K. & Halder, D. (2007). Rights of Women Prisoners in India: A Legal Analysis.
The Indian Journal of Criminology & Criminalistics. xxviii(2), 12-20.

https://iasscore.in/national-issues/under-trial-prisoners/

https://indiapoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/india-how-women-prisoners-are-
treatedworse-than-men/

https://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/ministry-of-women-and-child-development-
launches-report-on-women-in-prisons-1529995488-1