Cricketers, keep away from politics

The Brussels blasts on Tuesday drowned a minor but significant outburst in Mohali by the captain of the visiting cricket team of Pakistan touring India to participate in the T20 World Cup. Skipper Afridi invoked the K word and support to their campaign. To a question from the on-field commentator that Pakistan seemed to have good crowd response, Afridi bowled the googly saying that there were a lot of Kashmiris in the crowd in Mohali and the team got good support in Kolkata as well. The on field commentator was none other than Rameez Raja of Pakistan. That the conversation telecast live was innocuous is difficult to digest. It is no co-incidence that a visiting skipper egged on by a Pakistani on-field commentator availed the free airtime to address millions of spectators and innocently furthered the national policy of Pakistan and the ISI to keep the Kashmir issue on the front burner. If nothing else, a tormented Afridi has certainly earned some brownie points back home among the hardliners, especially India baiters, after his equally controversial comments on arrival that the Pakiatan team got more love and affection in India than it gets at home. The Pakistan cricket team is going through a rough patch is all too well known. The performance of the team in the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup has attracted nothing but criticism from fans of Pakistan cricket, former cricketers and politicians back home. An inquiry committee has been set up to question players about groupism within the team and underperformance of some players. Afridi himself is facing unprecedented flak on social media for his on and off-field antics. Afridi will step down as captain of the Pakistan cricket team and may even seek retirement from the game. Instead of making an honourable exit as an all-time great, Afridi has disgraced the tournament and sporting ethics by making a political statement knowing full well that Kashmir is the biggest bone of contention in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan and his comments will be seen as yet another attempt by Pakistan to internationalise the issue. India is the host country. As hosts, the BCCI has done everything to accommodate all teams. A venue was also changed to allay the fears of Pakistan and a host of their questionable demands were acceded to to make the tournament inclusive. Pakistan has also disgraced the tehzeeb of being a good mehmaan by abusing the impeccable hospitality and making a terrible political statement from a sporting arena. The visitors have lost the sympathy and support of millions of cricket fans in India and abroad by the Afridi broadside. Visiting teams are ambassadors of goodwill of their country. The present Pakistan team has, however, betrayed poor diplomacy and caused a setback to the people-to-people contact between the two neighbours and future bilateral series. The captain of the Pakistan team has definitely tarnished the image of cricket — a ‘gentleman’s game’. Since Pakistan has crossed the Lakshmanrekha of sports diplomacy, the BCCI should not soft-pedal the issue and lodge a strong protest with the ICC. In turn, the ICC should also crack the whip lest such utterances become routine and cause embarrassment to other participating nations and allow deviance in sportsmanship. The silence of commentators, diplomats and former cricketers on the issue is eloquent. The TRP hungry electronic media also did not find the comment juicy enough. The Pakistani ex-cricketers who generally suffer from verbal incontinence have suddenly developed amnesia on this issue. Lately, reports have emanated in a section of the media suggesting escalation in Rawalpindi’s non-terror front activities using non-governmental organisations to create unrest in India. The dialogue between Rameez Raja and Afridi at the toss in Mohali is a pointer to the fact that it could well be an orchestrated master act than just a rant by a ruffled skipper. It could not have been better timed with separatist leaders of Kashmir headed for Delhi at the invitation of the Pakistan Ambassador to attend the Pakistan Day celebrations. The sub-text of the narrative needs to be analysed and understood in the right perspective and steps taken to foil such future designs. (This article appeared in the Tribune on 26 March, 2016.) https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/cricketers-keep-away-from-politics-213235/

LESSONS FROM MAHILA POLICE RECRUITS' PROTEST IN GORAKHPUR, UP

The protest by nearly 600 women recruits of UP Police at the PAC, Police Training Centre, Gorakhpur, has raised pertinent questions about the state of training infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh. The young recruits, from diverse backgrounds, including some disadvantaged ones, joined the training with lofty ideals of donning the uniform to take on crime and criminals in the state. Unfortunately, they had such an unpalatable first experience that they had to take the extreme step of collective protest, something unheard of in uniformed services, particularly in a training institution. The concerns of the recruits appear genuine, including cramped accommodation, a lack of sanitation, electricity, water, and hygienic food, as well as the presence of CCTV cameras in the washroom areas. The women recruits were also incensed by a departmental circular mandating pregnancy tests for all recruits, married or otherwise. In response to this crisis, the state government suspended a senior officer involved in the training, and several senior officers were rushed to quell the disquiet and address the concerns of the budding Police officers. Suspension is merely for public optics. It does not address the malaise and lack of preparedness to undertake the enormous task of training so many recruits simultaneously at mostly makeshift training centres. Not long ago, UP had prided itself on recruiting 60,000 young men and women to its Police force, the largest such recruitment on the planet by any country, let alone a state. The recruitment process was completed successfully, utilising technology, human resources, and the state’s infrastructure, without any allegations of unfair practices or corruption charges. The appointment letters to the recruits were distributed with much fanfare by none other than the Union Home Minister in the presence of the UP Chief Minister. The UP Police website claims to have over three lakh personnel. Such a massive recruitment drive, which accounts for nearly twenty per cent of the state’s Police force, also highlights the state’s inability to recruit regularly to contain vacancies within manageable limits without impacting day-to-day policing efficiency and service delivery. It is sad that in our country, recruitment is also used as an electoral tool to garner votes. Vacancies are deliberately allowed to mount before recruitment just before the elections to the state assemblies. Such practices undermine the cadre management, training, and promotion of men and women in uniform. Uttar Pradesh has also recruited a large number of constables in the past. Drawing from their experience, they converted their armed battalions into temporary training centres. All states and central paramilitary forces resort to this practice when faced with unusually large intakes. The commencement of training, however, is preceded by a thorough stocktaking of available infrastructure and logistics. This exercise becomes all the more relevant given that approximately 12,000 women recruits need to be housed and trained in a safe, secure, and enabling environment. It is not confirmed whether an audit of available accommodation, including toilets and bathrooms, kitchens, dining halls, classrooms, outdoor training fields, equipment, dummy weapons, qualified instructors, CCTNS labs, and support staff, was conducted, or what efforts were made to augment the facilities. I recall that when the Himachal Police was required to train a newly sanctioned Mahila India Reserve battalion, the Police headquarters did extensive consultations with several officers and trainers. In fact, a lady IPS officer was handpicked and posted at the chosen battalion headquarters to supervise their training. Women trainers, supervisory staff, and support staff were also identified and posted to the new location. Extra infrastructure was created to suit the requirements of the women trainees before the training began. Not even a single murmur of discontent was heard during their training. The department’s responsibility goes beyond physical training. It is also responsible for equipping Police personnel with the necessary professional and soft skills, resilience, empathy, courage, and wisdom to tackle the modern-day challenges of crime, criminals, and complainants. This comprehensive training is crucial for the effective functioning of the Police force. Good training is like laying a solid foundation for a 30 to 35 years of career in khaki. Police training academies for officers have transformed into centres of excellence in learning in the Police craft. However, the same cannot be said of the training facilities for the junior ranks. Their job profiles and training facilities remain archaic, embedded in the colonial past. There is an urgent need for the rejuvenation of their roles, accompanied by commensurate training inputs and infrastructure. The Gorakhpur protests highlight the state’s inadequacy in creating gender inclusive institutions.  This inadequacy may not be exclusive to Uttar Pradesh. Other states may report similar shortfalls. The decades-old run-down training infrastructure is still primarily suitable for the male incumbents. As the percentage of women in the Police regularly increases to meet the avowed target of 33%, the Police infrastructure must undergo a significant overhaul in the training and work ecosystems, ensuring a sense of security, dignity, inclusiveness, and respect. Aside from punitive measures, the state must urgently take the corrective and more meaningful step of building adequate infrastructure, logistics, and capacity. Even if it means suspending the training of women recruits for a few months, this action is crucial to prevent such incidents in the future. The urgency of these reforms cannot be overstated. The uproar among women recruits, while causing a minor setback to the image of the Uttar Pradesh Police, actually presents a significant opportunity. This is a chance for the force for systematic improvements by identifying and addressing gaps in infrastructure, capacity, supervision, and grievance redressal. It’s also an opportunity to review policies, such as the installation of CCTVs, and address the privacy concerns of women personnel joining the force. This opportunity for systemic improvements should be embraced with optimism and determination. Other states can also learn a great deal from the Gorakhpur incident and upgrade their infrastructure accordingly. The lessons from this incident are invaluable and should not be overlooked.   Over the last few years, the UP Police have earned a good name for themselves. They should build on this culture by taking the frustration and anger of their newest recruits constructively. This positive reputation should serve as a source of pride and motivation for the force to continue its good work. (The article appeared in the Tribune on 28.7.2025) https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/premium/gorakhpurs-women-recruits-expose-a-broken-system/

SECRETLY RECORDED CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SPOUSES AND THEIR ADMISSIBILITY IN LAW

In a divorce case, the Supreme Court has accepted conversations of a couple secretly recorded by the man to prove cruelty by his wife, raising concerns about domestic surveillance and abuse of privacy law.s

In a landmark judgment in a divorce case (Vibhor Garg vs Neha), the Supreme Court has accepted the admissibility of secretly recorded conversations between a married couple as reliable evidence.

Vibhor Garg had filed a divorce petition under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 in a family court at Bathinda in Punjab on the grounds of mental cruelty by his wife, Neha.  The petitioner adduced conversations between him and his wife recorded by him over a period of time without her consent and knowledge to buttress his allegations of mental cruelty. The evidence was admitted by the family court. However, on appeal against its decision, the Punjab & Haryana High Court took an opposing view, holding the secretly recorded calls violative of the fundamental right to privacy as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Justice Lisa Gill held that the conversations were in clear breach of the privacy rights, and set aside the decision of the family court.

Aggrieved by this decision, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court, which on July 14 ruled in favour of the husband by accepting the recorded conversations, though they were made without the consent and knowledge of the spouse.

Complete lack of trust

The Supreme Court Bench, comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, used the recorded conversations to conclude that the marriage in question had reached a point of a broken relationship, where one spouse was actively snooping on the other, denoting a complete lack of trust between them, the very bedrock of a marriage. In essence, the Supreme Court admitted the recorded conversations to decide on the broken marriage rather than as an absolute question of privacy laws.

The court also relied on the exception provided in Section 122 of the Indian Evidence Act, which permits the disclosure of recorded marital communications in suits between married persons or proceedings in which one married person is prosecuted for any crime committed against the other. The Bench observed: “We do not think there is any breach of privacy in this case. Section 122 of the Evidence Act does not recognise any such right. On the other hand, it carves out an exception to the right to privacy between spouses and therefore cannot be applied horizontally at all.”

The Family Courts Act, 1984 grants a family court discretion to admit evidence, including reports, statements, documents, information, or other matters, that, in its opinion, will assist in effectively handling a dispute, even if that evidence might not meet the admissibility benchmark under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. This provision allows the family courts to consider a broader range of evidence, including recorded conversations, in deciding matrimonial disputes.

The court recognised that instances of mental suffering were very private and recorded conversations assisted the family court in deciding the matter appropriately. It reaffirmed its commitment to a fair trial, an inalienable right provided by Article 21  of the Constitution.

Important form of evidence

Call recordings have become an important form of evidence in legal proceedings. The Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 are the primary laws related to electronic records and the admissibility of these records. The admissibility of call recordings in Indian courts has been a matter of debate and controversy for several years.

The K.S. Puttaswamy judgment (2017) established privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court, in this case, has interpreted the right to privacy in the specific context of matrimonial discord, the exception provided in the Evidence Act, and the admissibility of relevant evidence in a family court proceeding to decide a case.

The judgment reaffirms the admissibility of secretly recorded conversations, based on the precedent set in R.M. Malkani vs State of Maharashtra. The admissibility of recorded electronic evidence was also examined in S. Pratap Singh vs State of Punjab, in which the Supreme Court accepted an unauthorisedly obtained tape-recorded conversation between two parties. The court evaluated the evidentiary value of the tape-recorded conversation and accepted it as evidence only because it was essential to resolving the case.

Some believe the judgment will promote spousal surveillance and abuse of privacy laws to be used against an unsuspecting partner in future. Research established that women are generally at the receiving end in a family or a live-in relationship. The male counterpart enjoys greater coercive control. Admission of recorded conversations between spouses will create a greater atmosphere of suspicion, a trust deficit, and an abuse of privacy laws.

The admissibility of call recordings in Indian courts depends on several factors, including the authenticity, accuracy, and reliability of the recordings, the relevance and probative value of the recordings to the issue at hand, and the circumstances under which the recordings were made. As technology continues to evolve, the admissibility of electronic evidence, including call recordings, will likely remain a subject of judicial scrutiny and interpretation. The admissibility of electronic evidence, such as recorded telephone or mobile conversations and video clips, often raises concerns regarding the right to privacy. While electronic evidence is accepted in a court of law, it is not generally legal for individuals to record conversations without authorisation due to the violation of the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. However, in Vibhor Garg vs Neha, the Supreme Court has emphasised that the use of recorded conversations as evidence is admissible only in cases involving matrimonial or family discord. Only time will tell if the courts in India will be liberal in accepting such evidence in other cases also.

(https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/secretly-recorded-conversations-may-be-evidence-but-erode-spousal-trust/article69847449.ece)

Nelson Mandela International Day: Alleviating the misery

July 18, which is the birthday of Nelson Mandela, is celebrated as the Nelson Mandela International Day, recognising and rededicating his commitment to human rights, conflict resolution, and reconciliation. This day is special to the prison officials across the globe as the day is also utilised to promote humane conditions during incarceration; to raise awareness about inmates being an inalienable part of society and to value the work of prison staff as a social service of particular importance. 

Nelson Mandela fought apartheid for decades, was sentenced to an astounding 27 years in jail and stood at least four trials. He observed, "It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." 

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. These rules are known as the Nelson Mandela Rules in honour of the great South African leader. Over 100 different rules were studied by the UNGA and these were revised in nine thematic areas — prisoners' inherent dignity as human beings; vulnerable groups of prisoners; medical and health services; restrictions, discipline and sanctions; investigations of deaths and torture in custody; access to legal representation; complaints and inspections; and terminology and staff training. Also Read - Water wisdom Like the rest of the world, the Indian prison system is overstretched and inadequately managed, which impacts the prisoners, their families and society as a whole. 

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, Indian prisons had an average occupancy rate of 118 percent as on December 31, 2020. There are a total of 1,347 prisons — including 606 sub jails, 413 district jails, 145 central jails, 88 open jails, 44 special jails, 29 women jails, 19 borstal schools and three others than the above jails. Against the capacity of a little over four lakh inmates, the prisons host a little under five lakh prisoners — putting pressure on infrastructure, resources and staff. 

As of April 2022, there were 773 districts in India but the number of district jails has been much less at 413. A large state like Uttar Pradesh, which has 75 districts, has only 61 district jails despite the fact that the state accounts for 22 percent of the country's prison population. No wonder the state has the worst occupancy rate at 177 percent, followed by Sikkim and Uttarakhand. These figures point towards a lack of coordinated effort in the direction of addressing the problem where it hurts the most. 

Transportation of inmates to and from courts, hospitals, etc. is an expensive and manpower-intensive activity. There is a need to break away from the traditional 'central, district, and sub-jail' concept and just increase the capacity of the existing prisons to align the prison system with the locations of the courts in the country. It will reduce the logistics cost to the exchequer in the longer run. It will also help in the proper segregation of convicts and undertrials. Convicts can be confined in the central jail only. Each state needs to prepare a five-year plan to create facilities to address overcrowding issues and provide humane conditions in the prisons.  

The reason for excessive overcrowding is the number of undertrial prisoners who account for 76 percent of the total occupancy. Faster trials, liberal bail provisions, and scrupulous adherence to Section 41 (A) of CrPC by all components of the criminal justice system alone will alleviate the situation. No single wing of this system can be blamed for this abject failure. 

There are instances of undertrial prisoners who languish in jails because they cannot pay for the surety or the bail bond. The state and district legal aid authorities can step in to find a solution to this problem as the surety and bond amounts are not very large. Prison administration can also play a positive role in such cases by enrolling such undertrial prisoners in the wage-earning programmes. As per the jail manuals, only the convicts can be made to work and earn wages. But by making an exception on humanitarian grounds for such poor inmates, a number of undertrials will gain their freedom and a sense of empowerment after securing bail with their own hard-earned money. 

There are huge staff vacancies in prisons across the country. Thirty percent fewer supervisory, watch & ward and medical and paramedical personnel are available for day-to-day functioning — straining the life-work balance of the staff and denying them in-service training opportunities. It also adversely affects the morale and motivation of the prison staff. The sanctioned staff strength is nowhere close to the strength mandated by the Model Prison Manual approved by the Home Ministry. 

The issue of parity of pay and allowances of the prison staff with the police department is yet to be put to rest. It is a daily struggle for the prison staff to ask for these basic perquisites. 

This day is supposed to celebrate the prison staff as well. But unfortunately, like other streams of service in the khaki, the number of awards and recognition available to the prison officials is minuscule. There are no awards for best-managed jails in small and large states, like those for the police stations. The union home ministry should consider instituting these awards to keep the mojo of the staff intact. India, like the rest of the world, has moved away from retributive incarceration to a reformation and reintegration agenda for its prisoners. 

India ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1979, which remains the core international treaty on the protection of the rights of prisoners. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) states that prisoners have a right to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health. 

A lot has been achieved in the last decade due to judicial activism and the efforts of some motivated prison administrators. Now is the time for a concerted effort by all to overhaul the prison infrastructure and human resources which costs a fraction of expenditure compared to the expenditure on the other components of the criminal justice system. 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/nelson-mandela-international-day-alleviating-the-misery-486172

On Gurugram Streets on a Rainy Day

हरे कृष्णा हरे जाम

हरे गुरु हरे ग्राम|

Gurgaon now Gurugram boasts of being the Millenium City. What earned this sobriquet could be the offices of several IT companies and grand edifices and Malls which are touted not as shopping places but as a destination and tourist attraction.

While the concentration of IT companies brings in thousands of young minds to the city along with revenue, it is certainly not this alone that should earn Gurugram this sobriquet. Silicon Valley in the US is home to the who's who of the world IT industry. But then Silicon Valley is also known for the 6th highest GDP in the world, and the best air, and water supply anywhere on the planet Earth. The infrastructure there is awesome and always being upgraded.

And here is our Millennium City overwhelmed by one hour's downpour. Thousands of motorists were stranded everywhere. Engines stalled. People abandoned their cars on the roads and trudged home in knee-deep water. NH 8 gets flooded and large pools of water create a huge splash.

And to make matters worse rains are invariably accompanied by power cuts.

Most of us believe that the reason for these ills is faulty planning and engineering. Most of the HUDA sectors have been carved out by acquiring village shamlat land. Each village used to have a big pond that served as a receptor for excess water. With the disappearance of these water bodies and disregard for the natural slope of the area stormwater management has become difficult.

The greedy governments have sold every inch of land even earmarked for parks, schools, and other community facilities in these sectors making us all suffer. The traditional and natural nullahs and streams have also been sold and big projects have come upon them to meet the ever-increasing housing demand.

Unlike Panchkula, Gurugram is not a zero hawker city. If you want to sell fruits, just start doing so on any pavement or footpath in Gurgaon. All that you need to do is to perhaps grease the palms of a few unscrupulous municipality or police officials. It is nobody's business to see how many hawkers, rehris and other vendors have illegally occupied the public footpaths. Whatever trash their businesses generate, goes into the drains which are seldom cleaned. Cleaning of drains may be a major issue in Delhi but not in your Millennium City.

Plastic bags are the bane of city drains. If a small state like Himachal Pradesh can ban the use of plastic bags, why can't the bigger states like Haryana do so? Can the local municipality not enforce such a ban? It would make the city look better. At present, you see plastic trash everywhere.

Thank God the heavens did not decide to open up today! Imagine what would have happened.

It is time the Gurugram officials were slapped on their wrists by their political masters to get their act together and take corrective measures immediately and engineer corrections in the next few months.

SHARBATI WHEAT OF MADHYA PRADESH AND PUNJAB PRCTICES

 Recently I bought a bag of Sharbati wheat at Rs. 44 per Kg. Normal MP wheat sells at around Rs. 40 a kilo. The third in the hierarchy is the Rajasthani wheat selling at Rs 30-32 a kilo. There is great demand for these varieties and I am told the farmers use no or little chemical fertilizers but reap a rich harvest earning handsomely or twice as much as the farmers in Punjab.

Wheat grown in Punjab is sold at Rs. 22-24 and there are few takers other than FCI. The rich farmers in Punjab themselves do not eat their own produce!

I would urge our Punjabi farmers and their so-called unions/associations to follow the Madhya Pradesh model by growing better varieties using no or little chemical fertilizers. It will restore soil health and the health of people. A particular area of Punjab has witnessed an explosion of cancer cases. A switch to healthier farming practices may reverse the cancer trend.

Better quality wheat will surely be in great demand for local consumption and exports. It will be a win-win for all.

Do the Punjabis have it in them to do it?

Women prisoners: The way ahead

 While assessing the condition of Indian prisons in 1835, Lord Macaulay described them as "shocking to humanity". The prisons system has definitely evolved from the medieval and the British times which mainly focused on incarceration and inhuman treatment of inmates. The prison conditions have significantly improved but a public interest litigation titled 'Inhuman Conditions in Prisons', in the Supreme Court puts focus on the not so desirable conditions in the Indian prisons. 

As per the NCRB data compiled up to 2015, there were approximately 4.2 lakh prisoners in some 1400 prisons in the country. Women, at 17,834, constitute just above 4 per cent of the entire prison population. Most of the women inmates are confined to separate enclosures in general prisons. Shockingly, there are only 18 prisons which cater exclusively to the women inmates. Whether the design of these 18 prisons is suitable to the specific needs of women remains debatable. The World Health Organization has observed that "prison system was primarily designed for men and many prisons do not have adequate facilities to protect women rights or to promote their health". This observation has been made in respect of the prisons in the world and is not targeted at India. The fact remains that the percentage of separate prisons for women is low and needs to be improved at the earliest. 

As with men, 2/3rd of women prisoners are also undertrial prisoners waiting to be tried by various courts which are heavily burdened with millions of pending cases. Women prisoners who are lodged in general prisons are perceived to be more vulnerable than their male counterparts, for obvious reasons. According to the NCRB data, 31.3 per cent of women prisoners are in the age group of 18-30 while another 50.5 per cent are 30-50 years old. The very fact that almost 82 per cent of women lodged in the jails fall in the age group of 18-50 years means that their personal hygiene and medical requirements vastly differ from their male counterparts and need to be addressed differently in the prisons. Globally, there is a conscious effort to treat them as a distinct category of inmates by recognising their special needs and creating an infrastructure to suit them specifically. 

The fact that 82 per cent of women in prisons are in the reproductive age also means that most of them have children to look after inside and outside prisons. As of 2015, 1597 women inmates were lodged with 1866 children in the prisons in the country. Separation of children from mothers is traumatic, to say the least. Issues of pregnant inmates, lactating mothers, young children, special diet, specialised medical care, etc., become important management issues in the prison administration if humane treatment is to be meted out to this category of prisoners. 

Of late, emphases has been laid on rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners rather than incarceration. Open jails have been talked about as a more viable and humane substitute to the standard prisons. Of the 3789 prisoners in open jails in 2015, women accounted for only 109, that too in a handful of states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh, though a small state, has done a pioneering work in creating open jail facilities in the state. Nearly 200 inmates have been placed in the open category and these inmates are supported by the Prisons Department by providing jobs not only in the prison factories but outside the confines of the prisons in partnership with industries, businesses and by innovative initiatives like Shimla Book Café. The department is also in the process of setting up a prison in Baddi which is a major industrial and pharma hub in Himachal Pradesh with a view of providing jobs to inmates. It is truly gratifying for Himachal Pradesh that the Apex Court in its interim orders dated 15/09/2017 observed: "The suggestion given by the learned Amicus of encouraging the establishment of 'open jails' or 'open prisons' is certainly worth considering. It was brought to our notice that the experiment in Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) and the semi-open prison in Delhi are extremely successful and need to be carefully studied. Perhaps there might be equally successful experiments carried out in other States as well and if so they require to be documented, studied and emulated." 

Skill development of women prisoners is also important because their reintegration upon their release is more challenging due to the stigma attached to them. Frequent exhibition of products made by the women inmates, visits by members of civil society to the prisons, awareness about the reforms taking place inside the prisons, all help in their better reintegration with their family and society. Women are being skilled in handlooms, bakery, cutting, stitching, weaving, and grooming services in the prisons in Himachal Pradesh. Himachal prisons have achieved yet another milestone by rehabilitating one woman inmate, who has been employed outside the prison in an educational society. And this step is just a beginning. 

The role of Government is paramount in improving the living conditions inside jails for women inmates. State and the Central Governments have to support the prison establishments to make them reformatories. Several committees have been constituted in the past since Independence which has made recommendations to improve the condition of prisoners, particularly women in the Indian prisons. All India Jail Manual Committee, 1957, Working Group of Prisons, 1972, All India Prison Reforms Committee, 1980-83 (Mulla Committee), All India Group of Prison Administration, Security and Discipline, 1986, National Expert Committee on Women Prisoner, 1987 (Justice Krishna Ayer Committee), and Ministry of Women and Child Development Report on women in prisons, 2018 have made several recommendations for improving the living condition for women prisoners. The Supreme Court has also directed state High Courts to monitor the condition of prisons in the states. It is hoped that with the recent pro-activism of the courts, the government departments will come together and join hands to improve the conditions of women prisoners in India in the coming years. 

Heads of Prisons & Correctional Services in the Country are assembling in Shimla on 4th and 5th October 2018 to discuss the issues pertaining to women prisoners in two days on the theme of "Women in Detention – Access to Justice". The Conference is co-hosted by the Department of Prisons & Correctional Services, Himachal Pradesh and Bureau of Police Research and Development.

http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/women-prisoners-the-way-ahead-321278