Only 4 of the 63 open jails in the country accept
women.
48-year-old Manoj Jha today is a reformed and a
confident person. No one, including him, can believe that he had been in jail
for almost 14 years. At the last leg of his punishment as a life convict, he
was sent to the Hoshangabad Open Jail in Madhya Pradesh, bringing in major
changes in his life. With 22 inmates in the open jail, he started his own
venture as a contractor. Joined by three more inmates from the jail in his
venture, they started going out of the jail on a daily basis and very soon,
started earning almost Rs 1 lakh a month. Today, Manoj Jha is seen as a symbol
of success of open jails in India. This is crucial in light of the ongoing
debate on the need of open jails.
The inhumane conditions of 1382 prisons in India have
forced the Supreme Court of India to intervene. Taking into account the study
conducted by the Rajasthan Legal Services Authority on open prisons, and
recommendations in the report prepared by activist Smita Chakraburtty, further
brought into focus by amicus curiae Gaurav Agarwal, the need for having more
open spaces in prisons is now gaining prominence.
During the hearing of a writ petition in December
2017, the Supreme Court of India directed Ministry of Home Affairs to send a
communication to all states/UTs asking for their response to the idea of open
prisons - whether they are willing to set up open prisons, and the manner in
which open prisons could be operated. A time period of four weeks was fixed by
the Ministry of Home Affairs, in October 2017. In pursuance of these meetings,
BPR&D has convened several meetings, the latest one in February-end, to recommend
uniform guidelines for the administration of open jails throughout the
country.
Ironically, of the 63 open jails in the country, only
4 accept women inmates at all. Yerawada Open Jail and the Women's Open Prison
in Trivandrum are exclusively for women, while Durgapura and Sanganer Open
Camps in Rajasthan take in a few women inmates. The other 59 open prisons in
India have no provision for accommodating women inmates. It seems that in some
states, women are in fact explicitly barred in the admission criteria to open
prisons, believing that the presence of women may lead to some complexities.
An open prison differs from the ordinary prisons in
four respects - in structure (affecting organization and administration), in
role systems (affecting work and interaction in everyday life), in normative
systems (affecting social restrictions and expectations guiding behaviour), and
in value orientations (affecting conduct and training).
In India, the first open prison was started in 1905
under the Bombay Presidency. The prisoners were selected from the special class
prisoners of Thane Central Jail, Bombay. However, this open prison was closed
in 1910. The state of Uttar Pradesh established the first open prison camp in
1953 for the construction of a dam over Chandraprabha River near Benaras (now
Varanasi).
After completing this darn, the prisoners of the open
camp were shifted to a nearby place for constructing the dam over Karamnasa
River. The third camp was organised at Shahbad for digging a canal.
Encouraged by the success of these temporary camps, a
permanent camp was started on March 15, 1956 at Mirzapur with a view to
employing prisoners on the work of quarrying stones for Uttar Pradesh
government cement factory at Churk, Mirzapur. The initial strength of prisoners
in this camp was 150 which went up to 1,700 but has now come down to 800.
Another permanent camp, called Sampurnanad Shivir, was established in 1960 at
Sitarganj in Nainital district in Uttar Pradesh.
At the time of its establishment, Sampurnanand camp
had 5,965 acres of land but later on, another 2,000 acres of reclaimed land
were handed over to the Uttar Pradesh government for the rehabilitation of
displaced persons. At present, thus, the Sitarganj camp has 3,837 acres of land
and is one of the largest open prisons in the world.
Prisoners selected for the camp from different jails
of the state are transferred to district jail, Bareilly, from where they are
shifted to the camp.
With 149 prisons in India facing an overcrowding of
more than 150%, it may be added that open prisons need to be restructured,
recognized and implemented. Open prisons must be established in all those
states where they do not exist at present.
3 comments:
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” -Nelson Mandela
This video showcases the journey so far, journey of how small Tinka Tinka make up a Dasna, 'Inka Dasna'.
It takes a lot of courage, on a woman's part, to have the will and determination to not just initiate but maintain a sensitive initiative like this, single handedly, as it's just not a mere series, but a responsible action with the lives of the rest of the inmates too.
#tinkatinka #prisonreforms #humanrights #jailstories #humanity #tinkatinkatihar #tinkatinkadasna
Inmates like Manoj Jha, reaffirm the idea that prisons ought to be a place that gives opportunities for positive change. We surely need more open prisons because such prison structures give more space to inmates for shaping their talents. #vartikananda #tinkatinka #jail #prison
This movement started for prison reforms in India by Dr. Vartika Nanda has brought a tremendous change in the lives of inmates, be it through the prison radio or Tinka Tinka India Awards. I hope ma'am is able to spread this movement further and create rainbows in more and more prisons. #tinkatinka #tinkamodelofprisonreforms #prisonreforms #vartikananda
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