A STUDY ON CONDITION OF WOMEN INMATES AND THEIR CHILDREN

Introduction:

In the race of liberalization, westernization and urbanization, Indian society has been facing various changes which also affects the social and economical order. Women centered  policies accelerated the participation of women in various job sector which sometimes leads to marital discord, frustration, failure, family disorganization and stress due to the non fulfillment of desire. The pressure of work leads towards the involvement of women in various criminal activities. According to the “prison statistics India" (2010) approximately 1700 children are living with their mother’s inside the jail out of which 428 women convicts stay with their children and 1063 women under-trial have their 1166 children living with them in prisons all over India.

Children of women inmates are classified into two different groups such as;

A. Children who are either born inside the prison, infants or are of less than 5 or 6 year of age.

B. Children above 5 year or above or have guardians to take care of them other than imprisoned mother.

Children of women prisoners inside prison

A child when born is in clean state of mind, learn what they see, the existing environment affects the child the most because the environment around him/her leaves the maximum impression on his/her mind. Many professionals and psychologists says that the first five formative years plays a crucial role in development of child.

It has been noticed that the children who were born in jail or are living with their mother since infancy are deprived of normal childhood and exposure. In comparison to other children who grow up in a family environment, there children are lacking proper growth and further development. For such children the concept of night is totally different the night for them is when they locked up in their cells. Indian jails do not have proper trained staff to take care of such children and hardly any educational or playing facility provided for the children.

In 2006 Supreme Court issued guidelines in the RD UPADHYAY V. STATE OF AP and observed with regard to children of women prisoners. These guidelines are designed with international standards. During the 2006 hearing SC observed that prison is no place to raise a child, recognized that children may have to live inside the prison for no fault of their own. The court said that children can stay with their mother in prison till the age of 6 year not after attaining that. While giving the reasoning that a child cannot be  separated from his/her mother in his first formative years especially in case when there is no close relative to take care of that child.

Shabnam v. Union of India and Anr on 27 May 2015:

In this case Shabnam and Shakeel killed Shaukat, Shabnam's father, two brothers, cousin and a sister-in-law . Also killed a 7 months old niece of Shabnam with axe, this incident took place on April 14-15, 2015.

Shabnam was pregnant when she committed this crime and delivered a baby boy in Moradabad jail and named his son Taj. The boy after attaining the age of 7 years and as per the jail rules is not allowed to stay with his mother inside the prison, his mother had petitioned that a relative is allowed to adopt him. Jail authorities says that they are awaiting report of probation officer and it is quite likely that the boy handed to Shabnam’s  relative Shakeel.

Problems faced by Mother inmates:

Prisons or jails are not the place where a child should live along with his mother because in jails a child can never get family environment.  A child in his/her first formative years deserves to get family environment. In jail mother inmates face various problem some of the problems faced by them are explained below;

Ø Due to limited amount of resources mother inmates faces difficulty in meeting the daily requirements of their children in jails.

Ø The jail environment is not healthy for the development of children in prison because of the reason that the existing environment leaves the maximum impression on a child’s mind.

Ø Prisons are deprived of proper facilities which are much needed to accommodate the children of women prisoner nor the jail staff is properly trained to handle the problems faced by children living in jails.

Ø The prisons doesn’t provide proper quality of food, nutrition, care, health and medical facilities, etc. Which is required for the growth and development of the children living with their mothers in jail.

Observations:

1) Children often find legal processes strange and confusing. Efforts should be made to make sure that the child does not have to do a lot of paperwork or be questioned by the authorities too frequently. The Authorities must be friendly towards the child and help him to understand what is happening.

2) Proper counselling should be provided to both mother as well as children so that they can deal with the conditions efficiently.

3) Special provisions must be made for those children whose parents are mentally unwell or ill or undergoing solitary confinement so that condition of their parents doesn’t have much impact.

4) As per the directions of SC the department of social welfare plays a important role in case of separation of child from mother, therefore there must be a mechanism to regularly review the implementation by concerned department and authorities.

Recommendations:

I. When a pregnant woman or a woman having child less than 5 or 6 years enter in jail with their child concerned Authority must check whether the jail has basic health and medical facilities, accommodation and proper nutrition for the child and his mother.

II. The women prisoners with children should provide with separate all so that the children of such inmates get sufficient space for the movement.

III. The children should be kept separated so that the existing environment would not affect their development and growth.

IV. Children of women inmates must be provided with proper clothes, bedsheet, sanitary napkin, soap, etc.

V. Education centre like Aganwadi, recreation centre, primary education centre, etc. should be provided in each jail.

VI. Women prisoners who work in jail should be provided with due wages so that they feel motivated.

VII. The prison staff must be provided with proper training skills so that it helps in proper care and welfare of women inmates and their children living with them in jails.

VIII. Various recreational facilities must be provided for the children of women prisoner such as play ground, education centre, etc.

Conclusion:

Women inmates and their children face so many problems because of not having proper facilities such as proper food, nutrition, education facilities, proper hygiene, etc. Due to over crowded prisons children do not get proper space for recreational  activities and they even don’t get family environment. There is a great need to provide proper education and recreational centres. The female prison staff must be trained properly to provide proper care to children of women inmates. Proper measures must be taken for children living in prison for their proper growth and development. The jail Authorities must ensure that mother’s and their children should have proper medical and health facilities. There should be different prisons for the criminals committed hard core crime so that children would not get influenced by the violence caused by such criminals. Indian government need to take various steps to make prison safe for child of women inmates till they attain the age of 5 or 6 years.

[The author, Amisha Jain is a 3rd year law student at Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad (U.P)]

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