DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

Seminar paper

Child law

FINAL draft on Topic: - why should I be punished? -

Children of imprisoned mothers

Submitted To: - Submitted By:-

Ms Kirti Singh Lokesh Nigam

Faculty Roll Number – 74

Child Law VII Semester

1
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A research project demanding such great scope and precision could never have been possible

without great co-operation from all ends. Contributions of various people have resulted in this

effort.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all prison staff of Nari Bandi Niketan, Lucknow

without whose valuable support and guidance, this project would not have been possible. I would

like to thank the library staff for bearing with my persistent queries and helping me out with all

the material however voluminous. I would also like to thank my seniors for having guided me

and culminate this acknowledgement by thanking my friends for having kept the flame of

competition burning, which spurred me on through the days.

2
SURVEY BASED RESEARCH METHOD

Project Overview:

Can the society legitimately punish a woman without ruining the life of her child? This is one of

the most basic questions that we are must ask ourselves if we intend to promote a crime-free

society and encourage children from disturbed families to start leading a respectful life. It is very

important to work with them and consequently help them lead a normal life. There are so many

stigma attached to children born to incarcerated mothers that despite all efforts to bring them into

the mainstream society it remains almost impossible for them to live a life of dignity and

respectfully earn their livelihood.

Project Details:

Broad Objectives:

1. The objective of this study is to bring to the notice of the society at large, the plight of

children of imprisoned women. It shall be done by analyzing the situation with regard to

the facilities available in prisons.

2. It is an effort towards empowering such children because besides being one of the very

underprivileged sections of the society, they suffer at the hands of the society. By

obtaining a brief over-view of the steps taken by the State to protect these children, we

shall be able to find the loopholes.

3
 3. They are victims of poverty and illiteracy because they are homeless and consequently

get trapped in the vicious cycle of unemployment and crime. The study aims at analyzing

the alternatives available to the children in respect of their social circumstances.

4. Analyzing the psychological impact of such events on the mind of a growing child and in

turn its reflection on the child’s behaviour. It shall be done obtaining reactions from the

mothers to get a better understanding of their attitude towards the situation and how their

children react to these situations especially the stigma attached to imprisonment.

Focus of study is to obtain answers to the following basic questions:

1. Are the mothers in prisons aware of the rights available to them in respect to their

children below 6 years?

2. Can the mothers and children in prisons exercise their rights that they are legitimately

entitled to?

3. Is the prison the right place for the development of their children? If not what is the

alternative available to them?

4. Does a child’s need to be with his mother end after 6 years of age? What is the better

alternative that can be provided to them for their acceptance into mainstream life?

5. Can protection be provided to children under any other provisions of Indian law?

4
 RIGHTS OF CHILDREN BORN TO INCARCERATED MOTHERS

Crime is the outcome of a diseased mind and jail must have an environment of hospital for
treatment and care- Mahatma Gandhi

Punishment for a crime is one of the most integral parts of the Indian legal system. The penal

system in our country emphasizes on imprisonment for most serious crimes. Sometimes the

criminal is the bread-earning man of a family, sometimes a juvenile, and at times a woman, even

a mother.

The instances of mothers in prison have increased manifold in the past few decades and the

maximum impact of this is felt by those children whose mothers are spending their term in

prison. They are kept away from their mothers, probably for their own benefit, as these women

are guilty of physically or emotionally abusive behavior.

The question that arises here is whether the society can legitimately punish these women without

ruining the lives of their children. According to recent surveys, one out of every two such

children with an incarcerated mother will commit a crime before 18 years of age. Attention needs

to be given on the trauma that these kids undergo. However the scenario is worse when these

incarcerated women are expectant mothers. Usually in such cases, the women are pregnant when

they arrive at the prisons.

However the problem of parenting, often, only begins with child birth. The harsh treatment of

pregnant inmates, the shackling during labor and malnourishment of the expectant mothers are

just the tip of the ice-berg. Since in most Indian prisons, no proper health and medical facilities

are available, these women are subject to the unhealthiest and most undesirable pre-natal

conditions. This directly influences the health of the conceived child and results in some of the

most appalling, human rights violation cases the child suffers even before his birth.

5
According to the Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991, the number of women in prison grew

75% from 1986 to become 39000 in June 1991. About 6% of the women in 1991 entered prison

pregnant. Only 42% of these women who enter prisons when they were pregnant received

medical attention and most of them delivered their babies all by themselves without any health

care and support of any kind. In most cases the child is either still-born or born with some

disability. According to unofficial reports, most children even if born healthy, develop some

ailments due to the unsanitary conditions and lack of proper care soon after birth.

The International laws and treaties restrict the shackling and handcuffing of women under these

circumstances, however, very few prisons if any, comply with these regulations. Amnesty

International USA reports that only two states, Illinois and California have banned this barbaric

practice and the issue just goes unnoticed everywhere else. Only 4.2% of these women receive

parental care related to pregnancy. The restraints on these women are justified as ‘procedure’.

Most people who have access to the inside story suggest that the victims of these ‘procedures’

are completely at the mercy of the correction officer on duty. Several lawsuits challenging these

atrocities are pending throughout the country. There is a grave discontent among those affected,

not only against the prison policies but also the state policies itself. In the Federal Prisons they

have initiated a program called MINT (Mothers and Infants Together)

Here, the mothers are allowed to stay with their infants below 6 years of age unless the woman

has been sentenced for a very heinous crime for a term more than 10 years. This ensures that in

most circumstances the mother and child can stay together and the child receives the maximum

care possible. This distinction on the basis of total term of imprisonment is made to ensure that

the child’s stay with his mother does not adversely affect his positive growth.

6
Although not yet in place, the recommendations of Justice Malimath and a Judicial Reforms

Panel has come into notice of many social workers, human rights activists and women activists.

There is a recommendation for alarm anklets for pregnant prisoners who are under house arrest

and those prisoners with children up to 7 years of age. However these recommendations have

been met with massive opposition with the activists. There is a huge controversy on which is

better for a child- staying with his mother in prison or being transferred with his mother to a

house arrest where she is shackled all the time. Justice Malimath is of the view that “A prison

can never be the right place for a child’s upbringing” and hence anybody would prefer to stay in

house arrest with all the restrictions. He calls his recommendations “pro-human rights, pro-

women and pro-children.”

General Ajay Agarwal, Director of Tihar jail, says that it is violation of human rights to keep

pregnant women in prisons and it is also unfair that innocent children have to stay in prisons for

the crimes committed by their mothers. At the same time he adds that if these women are

allowed to stay at home it would serve as an incentive to commit crimes and then get pregnant to

avoid imprisonment. Thus he adds that the best option is to improve the amenities in the prisons,

In the Tihar jail, female prisoners and their children up to the age of 6 years are given clothes, a

square meal and access to a crèche. This ensures that they don’t roam around in the streets and

turn into vagabonds.

However the reality is that in spite of this debate, children become innocent victims of their

parents’ misconduct. The burden of these kids falls on the shoulders of unwilling and unworthy

relatives. One in four such children develop difficulty in sleeping. They don’t get the health

facilities that constitute their basic rights. They tend to suffer emotionally and psychologically

besides the other observable damages that they suffer. In most cases the children stay in crèches

7
that are maintained in or near the prisons and the infant is allowed to stay with the mother for a

few hours in the day. Till the infant is 7 years of age some facilities are provided to the mother

for the welfare of the child but these rights that are provided legally are not available in reality.

However the question that arises is whether we can say that after 7 years of age when the law

does not provide any more relief and when the term of the incarcerated mother is not complete,

can the child be legitimately restricted from staying with his mother. Does the child’s need to

stay with his mother end on his 7th birthday?

In some ways, children are the unseen victims of the prison boom and the war against crimes.

Certainly sometimes, children are better off separated from a parent who commits crime,

especially of the parent has been abusive or involved with illegal substance. The question

however is how detached are these children from the delinquent nature and acts of their parents.

Individuals act on, interact with, and are influenced by elements in their social world. Although

it would be a mistake to believe that individuals are the complete architects of their environment,

it would be an equal mistake to believe that they are merely passive receptors of culture or

socialization. Instead, as we have endeavored to explain, there is a complex interaction that

occurs every time an individual engages in a behavior, especially an antisocial behavior. This

interaction can be understood through a biosocial approach that links individual traits and

characteristics to environmental stimuli.

Traditionally it was believed that by the time the brain had reached adult size (around age 10); it

stopped growing and producing new cells. However, research in the past decade has

demonstrated that the brain is constantly developing and making new cells even into old age. For

many years, researchers believed that the only vital period of growth in the brain was in the first

8
few years of life. It is true that the most significant and vital period of development occurs in the

perinatal and early years. To illustrate, approximately 95% of a child’s brain has structurally

developed to adult size by age 6.

CLIENTELE

Stake holders who were considered and contacted during the research:

1. Parents

2. Children

3. NGOs

4. Police and Administration

5. Jail Authorities

6. Academicians

7. Community leaders

8. Media

9. Volunteers

10. Administration at Special Homes

THE PRISON VISIT

Nari Bandi Niketan, Lucknow

There are 313 women in the Nari Bandi Niketan and 80 of them are under trials. There are 29

children in the jail staying with their mothers. Women from all over UP are brought to this

Central Jail. Male Prisoners with good behavior are brought to this Model Jail. Women in the

Nari Bandi Niketan are left open during the day. Counting takes place 4-5 times each day.

Women are taught to sew and work and that helps them use up their time and earn and

consequently save up for later use. Others involved in cleaning and sweeping. They are normally

9
given Rs 9/ set of salwar for sewing. Packing and cleaning of grains is also a task and they are

paid Rs 60/ quintal and 50p per packet as a group. Thus in a span of a day 4-5 women earn about

Rs 150 that is added to their account and given to them at the end of the term. If women earn up

to Rs 35 it goes to them. For every Rs 50 that they earn, Rs 15 is deducted and goes to the

government considering that they are a burden to the state.

The kitchen was clean and seemed hygienic and well organized. 7-8 women were working there.

There is a centre for their working where they are trained. The concept of this activity is for the

rehabilitation of these prisoners after their release. It aims at ensuring a secure future for these

women. The amount that they earn adds up regularly and this amount which is not handed over

to them. It is added to their account and given to them eventually on their release. However a

detailed conversation with these women has proved that most of these women are not satisfied.

Mrs. Shobha Singh, present supervisor at the stitching training centre says that there women fight

a lot and are very rowdy. It becomes very difficult to control them. Sometimes they need to be

scolded and sometimes punished. On other occasions they all sit together and she narrates to all

the women tales from her life and others trying to ensure a moral that they might be able to

incorporate for a better life in future.

Around 25-30 women get trained at a time in this center. Many of them are mothers who work

while their children roam around in the courtyard, playing with the grass and eating clay on other

instances. I am told that about 755 tunics and 297 salwars have to be made for female inmates all

over India. This is the order that have received and needs to be met within a deadline, which

keeps the women busy throughout the day.

10
Most fathers have the children who are outside prison though the mothers claim that they have

badly kept children. They say that the child does not get proper nutrition and care because the

father cannot take care of the child due to prior commitments or due to their work. They have no

other option. They are working hard to make both ends meet and usually it is a hand to mouth

living. This explains the fact that most of these people belong to the lower strata of the society.

They are from the low economic status and this adds to most of their miseries.

Most women have fewer visitors because they say their family does not have the time to spend

with them and under most circumstances the women feel that this is justified because it is true

that they have a world beyond the crime and this imprisonment. All women under the

impression that their husbands will take them back.

Food given to them is almost according to the standards set in the jail manual but the inmates are

deeply dissatisfied and unhappy with the quality of food given to them, showing special concern

for their children and the lack of nutritive food that is available to them. They say that one kind

of vegetable is cooked for months consecutively for months and except for the milk of bad

quality and a banana for breakfast, nothing else is given to the children. Though the women are

unhappy with the badly cooked food, a visit to the kitchen reveals hygiene and cleanliness. The

women say that the finally cooked food is unappetizing and not worth human consumption. They

say the food is only water based and has no vegetables.

Another observation made by me is that most cases were of imprisonment due to dowry death.

This meant that the full family was in prison and that if there are children above the age of 6,

there was no one to take care of them. They would be released before the males in their family

11
and under these circumstances they would have no one to take care of them or their children and

even after their release they would be surrounded by miseries.

A strange phenomenon observed was also that in cases where more than one other member of

their family was also behind bars, they would be bailed out more often than not. Thus due to

limited resources of the families, the young and the male members would be bailed out and the

older especially women would be left to bear the miseries in prison. The women are also

specially aggrieved by the fact that there are stricter laws for dowry death. They say that they

cannot be bailed out due to this and since most of them claim that they are innocent, there is no

way that they can escape the vengeance of the other party.

A very interesting and strange phenomenon in this regard was that a particular woman had a

grudge against her son’s in-laws because after her daughter in law committed suicide, the parents

accused the son’s family of causing death for dowry. However, they opted for an out of court

settlement and the accused and his family paid the girl’s family a huge sum so that they could be

released from this blame. After the settlement instead the girl’s family framed all of them and put

them behind bars ensuring that since they have no money any more, they could not even be

bailed out.

Among the various issues that the women have, lack of proper medical facilities is a burning

requirement. There is a hospital and a detailed conversation with the jail staff reveals that there

are 2 doctors, 3 nurses and 3 pharmacists appointed for the jail. They visit every week and they

are highly trained practitioners who are highly competent and well adept at their job.

However, the inmates have a different version. They say that medicines given to them are

obviously not the right ones because they make them weak and also drowsy to the extent that

12
they end up sleeping all day. Mr. Nagesh Singh, Senior Superintendent, at the prison however

says, that the version of the women is not absolutely wrong because according to his personal

experience though they are all competent doctors, they come from the city after a long journey

for a short visit and since they all have their own practice in the city, they are usually in a hurry

which might mean that there is a compromise on quality. However, he says that their task is a lot

more than the naked eye can see. They have to differentiate the false cases from the genuine ones

to ensure that the inmates do not use the hospital services as a recreational facility to enjoy the

comforts of the hospital.

However, the women are able to relate the 3 recent deaths in the prison premises to medical

negligence by the doctors. They say that even fit people end up in the grave because ‘these

deaths mean nothing more to the authorities than the death of a mosquito’. Mr. Singh, however,

has an explanation for this phenomenon. He says that these allegations hold no water. He

explains that once a women comes to jail for life imprisonment, it means that she is supposed to

be behind bars till her death and hence sooner or later the death will be caused in prison itself.

He says that she does not become immortal in prison and that at an advanced age she has to die.

So was the case with these deaths as well which he attributes to old age. He says these they were

in a critical stage for long in any case.

This raises another question of whether or not there was an attempt for their pre-mature release if

they were so old. Mr. Singh explains this phenomenon as well. He says that for a pre-mature

release, there are various stages and complicated procedures involved. At the age of 60 and then

65 of the inmate or when a term of 14 years and then 19 years is completed by the inmate, the

jail administration applies for the consideration of the inmates’ pre mature release. However, the

request requires the assent of the jail authorities and the police administration after which the

13
DIG and IG forward it to the Governor. Since this involves so many steps, he says that the

request is lost somewhere in the process and under most circumstances, unless there is an

external force pursuing the matter, the death of the prisoner takes place before any action is

initiated in this regard.

Presently, there are 6 children who have been sent to the Samprechhan Home from Nari Bandi

Niketan and the Samaj Kalyan Vibhag is taking care of their upbringing and sponsoring their

education and living on behalf of the government. An inmate, Devki, who has been in prison for

over 10 years now, had sent her son to the Home. Her son is 11 years old now and is being

educated there. She seems quite happy and satisfied by the way he is growing up. She also

applies once every 3 weeks to meet her son and then he is permitted to visit her. This system

seems to be working fine to the knowledge of the inmate mothers.

Under trials are another concern that seems to be unattended by the whole administration and the

system. Everybody seems oblivious of the fact that these people are not convicts and they don’t

deserve to be in prison for long. To answer this question, Mr. Singh says that it cannot be helped

much and agrees that this becomes a big lacuna in the law if the under trial is acquitted because

in this case the under trial has spent a considerable period of time in prison for no justification.

However, in cases where the accused is convicted, the term of imprisonment is reduced by the

term that has been spent as an under trial. Some women have started in prison and without being

released even once end up in prison.

The dissatisfaction among the inmates ranges from the lack of books to read as is regularly

promised by the authorities, to the lack of basic necessities and utility items like soaps and other

such sanitation facilities. They also say that for those women who have been in prison for a very

14
long period of time, the money earned by them is added to their accounts. However, all the new

inmates complain that even though they keep working, the cost of their labour is not entered into

their accounts mainly because their accounts don’t exist and are not operative yet. They say that

this means that they have been working without pay all this time. This grievance is widespread

and has not been met at any level. The older inmates are of the opinion that their grievances were

better met when they had a female jailor and that she was a lot more sympathetic to their

condition.

At a personal level it was a scary experience because some inmates were not as friendly as the

others and it was a scary feeling to work in a hostile environment where the women were not

supportive enough. They even expressed their frustration over such visits made by people from

NGOs and other such research workers who keeping taking down notes about their condition but

contribute in no way. They seem to have no faith in the justice system or on the jail

administration. It was very evident that women who had spent most part of their lives in prisons

had accepted their state and had no demands any longer. Some women who had been behind bars

for 12-15 years, also said that there was no need for any improvement because at the end of the

day they were in the prison and they had no reason to be treated as though they were at home.

They accept the fact that they are not eligible for any privileges.

However those women who are young and new at the prison are more verbose about their

pitiable condition and the need for some rapid change. Mothers with children are unhappy about

their condition because they realize the fact that this is not the best environment for their child’s

upbringing. But there are other women too, who have no near ones in the world and no work to

do, nowhere to go.

15
They are happy to have their children around them in prison because they know that there is

nothing better for them in the outside world. They are more secured within the prison walls and

hence they are silent about any demands. The older women however are scared of dying in the

prison. The major part of their life has been spent behind bars and now that they can see their

approaching death they don’t want to end their life in prison.

According to a survey done by Prayas, in India, there are:

280 Observation Homes

281 Juvenile Homes

36 Special Homes

46 After Care Institutions

OBSERVATIONS

1. VISITATION RIGHTS:

2. LACK OF FOOD AND NUTRITION

3. LACK OF PROPER EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES

4. LACK OF MEDICAL FACILITIES

5. MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE

6. PRE-MATURE RELEASE

7. UNDER-TRIALS IN JAIL

8. LACK OF BASIC UTILITY ITEMS

9. DEVELOPMENTAL FACILITIES

16
Preschool stage:

In this first developmental stage, child characteristics and community and family deficits

produce aggressive and disruptive behavior disorders by the time of school entry. The theoretical

link between structural community factors and delinquency at the individual level is mediated

primarily by family variables. At birth- or beginning in the prenatal period for some infants- the

family of procreation is the central influence on infants and children. During the preschool years,

and especially in the elementary school period and onward, the array of risk factors expands, as

some children are exposed to negative peer influences outside the home. Some children are also

exposed to additional risk factors situated in schools or in the community at large during this

period.

The situation is worsened if some children have to spend this part of their childhood in prisons

with their mothers. Important family variables in the preschool stage include low parental

education and a host of family problems, including a broken home, parental criminality, poor

family or child management, abuse and neglect, serious marital discord, and young motherhood.

School entry stage:

Early childhood aggression and disruptive behaviors, including stubbornness, defiance and

disobedience, and truancy after school entry are products of dysfunctional families, particularly

in disadvantaged communities. Aggressive and disruptive behaviors are likely to be followed by

rejection by pro social peers, thus opening the door to antisocial or deviant peer influences,

which predict delinquent activity in later childhood and early adolescence. The link between

physical aggression in childhood and violence in adolescence is particularly strong. It is

important to note that most disruptive children do not become child delinquents, nor do most

17
child delinquents engage in delinquency in adolescence. One-fourth to one-third of the disruptive

children are at risk of becoming child delinquents, and about a third of all child delinquents later

become serious, violent, and chronic offenders.

Compared with late-onset delinquents, child delinquents tend to come from dysfunctional

families with one or more of the following characteristics:

1. Family disruption (especially a succession of different caregivers)

2. Parental anti social behavior

3. Parental substance abuse

4. Mother’s depression

5. Child abuse and neglect

The scenario looks grim for children who spend a part of their childhood in prisons because more

often than not they fall into 3 out of 5 of these risk factors.

10. ABSENCE OF A CARE-TAKER

To avoid the trouble that a child would be experiencing in prison, when a mother is arrested,

child care arrangements may have to be made. A grandparent is most commonly asked to assume

the responsibility. However, at the advanced stage in their life, most of them do not contemplate

this, especially when it is physically or financially difficult to do so. The search now shifts to a

relative who may have children. But their needs take the priority over the needs of these

homeless children.

18
Wherever the child goes, the mother-child relationship will be jeopardized, especially when it

comes to the development of a very young child, in this case a child below 6 years of age. The

assumption, on which our society functions, is that mother-child bonding is critical for healthy

development and emotional growth, and that its absence has undesirable consequences for the

child.

In their meta-analysis of 34 prospective longitudinal studies of the development of antisocial

behavior, Lipsey and Derzon (1998) found that having an antisocial parent or parents was one of

the strongest predictors of violent or serious delinquency in adolescence and young adulthood.

Certainly, removing the negative influence of a parent can result in both positive and negative

outcomes for the children, but we have virtually no data on this.

First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, held at

Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council states in S. 23 that in

women’s institutions there shall be special accommodation for all necessary pre natal and post

natal care and treatment. Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be

born in a hospital outside the institution. If a child is born in prison, this fact shall not be

mentioned in the birth certificate.

Where nursing infants are allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision shall

be made for a nursery staffed by qualified persons, where the infants shall be placed when they

are not in care of their mothers.

19
 LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION

(Courtesy of THE PROGRAM for Women and Families, Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania.)

We are looking at the model community based program for offenders and their children. This is

aimed at addressing the intersecting needs of these females, as well as at matching sub-groups of

these women to treatment and services based on their individual needs. The model should foster

personal growth and development. There must be an attempt to provide in a supportive and

nurturing environment, a program that teaches parenting and emotional management skills along

with life management skills. The purpose will not be to provide just better mothers, but self

reliant and self supporting individuals.

Phase 1: Parenting Classes

It must be treated as a skill that can be acquired, primarily within the family of origin but it is

completely lacking in our target group, given the negative family experiences. Phase 1 consists

of an 8 week parent education program to explain the developmental stages of children and it

would also include discussions of how a mother’s negative behavior can impact the family unit.

Phase 2: Parent Support Groups

It focuses on specific issues like family interactions. It is to be held in conjunction with a child

support group to encourage protecting children from becoming deviant. It is a 16 weeks program

providing specific suggestions and a structured parent/child activity to promote family bonding.

Phase 3: Working with Emotions

20
The untreated childhood trauma combined with serious economic, social and emotional

deprivation, can create tremendous stress. It deals with emotional management and stress

management strategies and dealing with individual deficits.

Women expressed their frustration over visits made by people from NGOs and other such

research workers who keeping taking down notes about their condition but contribute in no way.

They seem to have no faith in the justice system or on the jail administration. It was very evident

that women who had spent most part of their lives in prisons had accepted their state and had no

demands any longer. Some women, who had been behind bars for 12-15 years, also said that

there was no need for any improvement because at the end of the day they were in the prison and

they had no reason to be treated as though they were at home. They accept the fact that they are

not eligible for any privileges.

However those women who are young and new at the prison are more verbose about their

pitiable condition and the need for some rapid change. Mothers with children are unhappy about

their condition because they realize the fact that this is not the best environment for their child’s

upbringing. But there are other women too, who have no near ones in the world and no work to

do, nowhere to go.

They are happy to have their children around them in prison because they know that there is

nothing better for them in the outside world. They are more secured within the prison walls and

hence they are silent about any demands. The older women however are scared of dying in the

prison. The major part of their life has been spent behind bars and now that they can see their

approaching death they don’t want to end their life in prison.

21
There is a need to study this aspect of our society. We don’t talk about prisons like we discuss

hospitals and schools. No emphasis is laid on the reforms required here. They are like an

unspoken part of our society. There is need to analyze the psychology of such mothers and the

mental strain that they experience for the upbringing and security of their children. At the same

time we need to study the mental trauma that their children undergo. It is only then that we can

help them and thus discourage the formation of this vicious cycle of crimes where the child gets

trapped even before birth.

Basic changes required in the fields of :

1. Medical facilities

2. Nutrition

3. Education

4. Environmental hazards

5. Skill development opportunities

6. Shelter beyond jail

7. Remarkable psychological impacts

22
Questionnaire:

1. Name of the jail:

2. Name of the Prisoner:

3. Age:

4. Address:

5. Family Details:

6. Occupation before conviction:

7. Crime Committed:

8. Brief Story of Crime:

9. Reasons for committing the crime:

10. Experience with the criminal justice system:

11. Children in jail:

12. Age of children:

13. Facilities available in jail:

14. Children outside jail:

15. Age of children:

16. Details of the children outside jail:

17. Education of children:

18. Behaviour of fellow inmates towards the children in jail:

19. Behaviour of prison staff towards the children in jail:

20. Family visits:

21. Nature of family relations:

22. Prospects after jail:

23
 CONCLUSION

The questions that stand- Can the society legitimately punish women for their crimes without

ruining the lives of their children? The question of what is best for the child still remains.

Keeping the welfare of the child in focus, there has been furtherance in the options but what is in

the best interest of the child is a question widely asked. Does the child really have something

called a right to family? Is it best for the child to be brought up in the presence of the mother

irrespective of the fact that the child is growing up in the prison. Or is it best to let the child stay

with his/her family notwithstanding the fact that he may not have a family and on certain

occasions the family might not want the child. Or is the school of thought which suggests, that

the State should take the responsibility of such children correct? Some others are of the view that

the child should be given up for adoption because under most circumstances the mother will not

be able to rear him well even after her release.

The controversy does not end here. There are serious doubts about the education pattern as well.

There are questions whether the child should be given proper class room education and schooling

or should the child be given basic primary education and then be trained in a particular field to

help the child become self-dependent. The ‘best interest of a child’ is a very ambiguous term and

is open to varied interpretations. There can be no one explanation to this.

The more we look into the life of the child and the impact of the mother’s crime on the

development of the child, the more is the confusion. A discussion with Mr. Sharad Kulshreshth,

DIG (Prisons), Lucknow Range, showed that the authorities are not absolutely unaware of

situation. They are also acquainted with the ground reality. Mr. Kulshreshth very candidly

accepted the fact that these children are suffering for no fault of theirs and are victims of their

24
own fate. However, he opined that there is very little that can be done to help these children. He

said that the rights of children and imprisoned mothers are on such slippery grounds that if we

try to ensure one right, we are in violation of some other. If we analyze this point of view

closely, it does seem to have some merit. If we try to ensure a family to the child, he might be

forced to live in the prison or with an unwilling family where his condition might be worse.

Further if we think of the child’s welfare and work on the option of a foster home or an adoption

home, then the right of the mother to be with the child is violated.

Every case needs to be looked at individually because no two women have the same demands

and needs. Some women have accepted the fact that they are criminals and deserve to be in

prison and hence someone must come forward and take up the responsibility of their child.

However other women are of the opinion that now that they have nothing left in their lives at

least their child who is their only reason to live, should be left with them. Further there are

women who want to start afresh and want the best for their child. They want to live normal life

again. But the greatest problem that is faced during this research unlike other fields of work is

that the child cannot be given a right to choose! The solution to most problems has been as

simple as the personal right to choose. Euthanasia has been a controversy which boils down to

the individual’s right to choose whether to live or not to live. Homosexuality has been an issue

which stops at the individual’s personal choice. Every other situation where someone is being

wronged, there is a scope for choice. The final decision after every debate can be left for the

individual in question, to choose. However the problem in our case is that we are dealing with

individuals who don’t even have a right to choose. They cannot decide for themselves because

they don’t have the ability and the maturity to do so. Yet at their tender age, they are being

25
wronged a lot more than any other section of the society. This increases our responsibility and

the need to do something about this issue soon. Hence the search for an answer…

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Statutes & Reports:

1. All India Committee on Jail Reforms, 1980 (Rtd Mr. Justice A.N. Mulla)

2. Amnesty International “Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners”, 1955

3. Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003

4. Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005

5. Declaration of Child Rights 1959

6. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000

7. Malimath Committee Report, 2003

8. Prisoners Act 1900

9. UNCRC

10. UP Jail Manual

11. WB Jail Code

Surveys & Statistics:

1. Bureau of Police Research & Development-Prisons and Law in India

2. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative- Facts & Figures

3. Home Office Research and Statistics, 1994

4. Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991

5. UP Prison Statistics 2008

26
Articles:

1. Amnesty International (2000) Pregnant and Imprisoned in the US, Sara A. Rodriguez

2. Babies Born to Incarcerated Mothers- Anne Hemmet Stern, 2004

3. Bloom B Steinhast, D (1993) Why Punish children? A Reappraisal of the children of

Incarcerated mothers in America. San Francisco,LA : National Council on Crime and

Delinquency

4. Prisons in UP, Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Development,

Planning Commission Report, 2004

5. Voice of a Child, The Howard League for Prison Reforms

6. What About Me? Children with Incarcerated Parents, Michigan State University, March

2005

Books Referred:

1. Women and Punishment- The struggle for Justice- Pat Carlen

2. The Effects of Imprisonment- Alison Liebling and Shadd Maruna

3. Female Offenders- Critical Perspectives and Effective Interventions- Ruth T. Zapulin

4. Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency, 2nd ed, James C. Howell

5. Criminals in the Making- Criminality Across the life Course, John Paul Wright, Stephen

G. Tibbets

6. The Politics of Imprisonment- How the Democratic Process shapes the way America

punishes Offenders, Vanessa Barker

7. Corrections- Mary Stohr, Anthony Walsh

27
 8. Prisoners and the Law- Tottel Publishing, 3rd ed, Vicky King, Hamish Arnott

9. When Prisoners Come Home- Parole and Prisoner Reentry, Joan Petersila

10. Prisons- Today and Tomorrow, Joycetyn M. Pollock

**************

28