The Calcutta High Court has expressed serious concern over the plight of women prisoners in the state’s penitentiaries. Regarding this, a petition has been filed on the single bench of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagananam and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya. It has been said in the petition that 196 children have already been born to these women in different jails of Bengal, whereas She is serving her sentence here. A demand has been made to the court that men should be banned from entering women’s jails. This petition has been filed by the ‘Amicus Curiae’ (friend of the justice) of Calcutta High Court. He also visited a jail along with the ‘Inspector General of Prisons’ of the state. There he saw a female prisoner pregnant. Apart from this, 15 children were living there with their mother. The mothers of the children, i.e. female prisoners, were living in custody in correctional homes. After hearing this petition, the Calcutta High Court accepted that this is indeed a serious issue. The bench led by the Chief Justice ordered that this petition be placed before the division bench hearing criminal cases. Besides, the Public Prosecutor of Bengal has also been asked to be present during that time. The High Court has been told that children are being born in jail itself. Also, male employees working in correctional homes have been requested not to enter the section where women live.
Bengal jails have 1.3 times more prisoners than their capacity
In fact, in 2018, the court itself took action on the increasing crowd in jails and entrusted the responsibility to an amicus curiae, Advocate Tapas Kumar Bhanj, to investigate the matter. Amicus Curiae submitted its report to the High Court on Thursday, in which it has been claimed that female prisoners lodged in the jails of West Bengal are getting pregnant. At the same time, 196 children are also growing up in different jails. He advised that there should be a ban on male employees going to the women’s barracks. It is noteworthy that Tapas Kumar Bhanj had also suggested in a note given on January 25 that all the District Judges should visit the correctional homes under their jurisdiction, so that it can be found out how many women have died during their stay in the correctional homes. The prisoner has become pregnant. To prevent sexual exploitation of female prisoners, he had also advised them to undergo pregnancy test before sending them to the correctional home. He had said that it can be started from all the police stations of West Bengal. For this, necessary orders/instructions can be given by the court. While presenting the report in the High Court, the Amicus Curiae also narrated the eye-witness accounts of a pregnant woman and 15 children born inside a correctional home. Tapas Kumar Bhanj said that some children were born in front of his eyes. The jails of West Bengal are facing a crisis as overcrowding has reached dangerous levels. According to the report released in 2023 by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there are 1.3 times more prisoners in the jails of Bengal than their capacity. In the report of Jail Statistics-2022 in India, it has been said that 19 thousand 556 men and 1 thousand 920 women are imprisoned in the jails of West Bengal.