74.18 per cent of prison population are undertrials : NHRC

As of 30 June 2001, there were 2,90,065 inmates in the jails of 26 States and 6 Union Territories of the country whose authorised capacity at this period was 2,19,880 – resulting in an overcrowding of 31.2% in Indian jails.

The maximum overcrowding was recorded in the jails of Mizoram (442%) followed by Jharkhand (260%), Delhi (211%), Haryana (165%), Andaman & Nicobar (139%) and Chhatisgarh (115%). As compared to the previous year, it was noted the extent of overcrowding in jails has further increased in the States of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and the Andaman & Nocobar Islands. While Bihar and Gujarat, the statues quo was maintained, in Orissa, there was a fall in the extent from overcrowding 66% to 50%. The newly formed states of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh, as well as Bihar Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Delhi and Andaman & Nicobar Islands are experiencing an acute problem of overcrowding, which has only increased through the years. In Mizoram, which had recorded ideal capacity of 15% in the year of 2000 has registered 442% overcrowding and is a need of immediate measures for check.

While Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra Meghalaya, Punjab and Tripura have manageable jail population with overcrowding ranging from 24% to 5%, a number of jails in the country have idle capacities, the major among them being Himachal Pradesh (97.46%), Uttaranchal (84.31%), Kerala (84.83%), Rajasthan (80.97%), Pondicherry (71.73%), West Bengal (55.91%) and Jammu & Kashmir (39.32%).

Significantly, out of the entire jail population of 2,90,065 a total of 2,15,183 are undertrials. The overall percentage of undertrials in jails has registered an increase of 7%. The largest number of undertrials are to be found in the jails of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, where more than 90% of the prison population are undertrials. In Dadra & Nagar Haveli, undertrials constitute 100% of the jail population because convicts sentenced to more than three months of imprisonment are transferred to the neighbouring state of Gujarat. In Bihar, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Nagaland and Jharkhand, more than 80% of the jail population is accounted for by undertrials.

Tamil Nadu has brought down the percentage of undertrials from 76% in 2000 to 31.12% in 2001. Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh are consistently maintaining their undertrial population at 55% to 60%.

The 9,055 women prisoners account for 3.12% of the total jail population in India. The is a marginal increase over the previous year when 2.8% of the jail population were women. Mizoram recorded the highest percentage of women prisons (11.02%) followed by Chhatisgarh (5.69%), Manipur (5.63%), Daman & Diu (5.55%), Delhi (4.45%), Maharashtra (4.29%) and Punjab (4.28%).

The Commission has collected details of jail population as on 30 June 2001, from all States/Union Territories except Sikkim and Chandigarh. It may be recalled that the States and Union Territories are required to send statements of their respective jail populations as of 30 June and 31 December of every year to the National Human Rights Commission. However, the Commission has been facing a lot of difficulties as these information have not been very forthcoming.