New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been informed that pregnant women inmates in West Bengal jails were already expecting when brought to jails after their sentence via judicial orders or at the end of their parole, in a case concerning 196 babies living in prisons across the state.
Last week, the Supreme Court took cognisance of the issue of some women prisoners lodged in West Bengal's Correctional Homes getting pregnant. Agreeing to examine the matter, a bench comprising justices Sanjay Kumar and Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked senior advocate Gaurav Agrawal to look into the issue and submit a report. Agrawal is already assisting it with improving jail infrastructure.
According to information from ADG and IG of Correctional Services, 62 children were born in the last four years in West Bengal jails. “It appears that most of the women prisoners were already expecting at the time when they were brought to jails. In some cases, the women prisoners had gone out on parole and returned expecting”, said the report submitted to the apex court.
Agarwal, in his report, suggested that, in the interest of justice, the apex court should appoint a senior-most woman judicial officer in each district to assess the available security measures in women’s jails. The report suggested that the inspections should examine the availability of sufficient women personnel for the security and welfare of women prisoners and their health checkups during jail admission and after that at periodic intervals.
The report suggested that in jails where there are children, it may be perhaps advisable to include a woman member of the Child Welfare Committee in each district to examine the availability of creches and schooling in prisons. The facilities should comply with an earlier Supreme Court judgment in the 2006 RD Upadhyay case, added the report.
The 2006 judgment came with a slew of directions for the care and welfare of children born to women inmates. The apex court is likely to take up the matter again next week. The court has already constituted a district-wise committee to assess the available infrastructure in jails and decide on the number of new jails required. Last week, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer to a criminal division bench of a matter in which the amicus curiae claimed that some women prisoners lodged in West Bengal's Correctional Homes were getting pregnant and 196 babies were staying at various such facilities.
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