Decongestion of prisons inadequate, release 'doesn't take into account' age, health

By A Representative
As many as 45 organizations and 187 professionals in health and allied sectors and concerned citizens from India and abroad have issued an appeal to urgently revise criteria for release of prisoners on bail or parole to decongest prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic by giving priority to health status and age related vulnerabilities of the prisoners.
The appeal, sent to the chief justices of all Indian States and Union Territories (UTs), National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), State Legal Services Authorities (SLSA), State Prison Authorities and High Powered Committees (HPCs), cites the Supreme Court of India (SC) order dated March 23, 2020, to say that overcrowding in Indian prisons is a long-standing issue with under trial prisoners constituting nearly 70 percent of the inmates.
The appeal, even as welcoming the Supreme Court order and the HPCs for decongestion of prisons during the pandemic, said, the measures taken so far have been inadequate from a public health and human rights perspective and also uneven across Sates and UTs.
Citing Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) reports, the appeal said, during the first wave, over 61,100 prisoners were released, which achieved only about 15.4% overall reduction in occupancy rate. It added, this was inadequate to address overcrowding of 40% of the Indian prisons, including 134 prisons having overcrowding from 100% to 636%.
Currently, the appeal said, additional complexities have stemmed from the ravaging second wave of the pandemic. Almost 90% of the prisoners who were released last year had returned to prisons in February and March, 2021, as per the SC order.
It regretted, the criteria employed for release on bail or parole by HPCs are based upon nature of offence and years of imprisonment; they do not take into account the age, health status and associated vulnerabilities of prison in-mates to covid 19, and being differently abled.
Pointing out that these vulnerabilities need to be central to determine the release of prison inmates, both because it is being done in response to the ravaging pandemic, the appeal said, the government is duty bound to uphold the rights of prisoners in alignment with Article 21 of the Constitution of India and other relevant international obligations, such as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The appeal pointed out, only five state HPCs considered cases of elderly prisoners for release; only three included in the above criteria occurrence of comorbidities, chronic diseases and certain preexisting conditions like chronic diabetes, HIV, heart condition, cancer, hepatitis B or C, tuberculosis, adding, only Punjab HPC specifically mentioned pregnant women as the category for release.
The appeal recalled, chiefs of the UN agencies (May 13, 2020) in a signed statement appealed for the release of nonviolent detainees as well as those at high-risk, such as the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions by highlighting the heightened vulnerability to Covid-19 of prison inmates and others in confinement.
They urged policymakers to “…consider limiting the deprivation of liberty to a measure of last resort, particularly in the case of overcrowding”, which undermines hygiene, health, safety and human dignity, causing an “insurmountable obstacle for preventing, preparing for or responding to Covid‐19”, the appeal said.

The government is duty bound to uphold the rights of prisoners in alignment with Article 21 of the Constitution and relevant international obligations

The appeal further said, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that “efforts to control Covid-19 in the community are likely to fail if strong infection prevention and control measures, testing, treatment and care are not carried out in prisons and other places of detention as well”, even as quoting the World Medical Association Declaration of Edinburgh on Prison Conditions and Spread of Tuberculosis and other Communicable Diseases as saying:
“Prisoners enjoy the same healthcare rights as all other people. This includes the right to humane treatment and appropriate medical care. The most efficient way of reducing disease transmission is to improve the prison environment by putting together an efficient medical service that is capable of detecting and treating the disease, and by targeting prison overcrowding as the most urgent action”.
The signatories urged the authorities to treat all prisoners on par for release, irrespective of charges/offense and modify the categories of prisoners to be considered for release, giving priority to age, vulnerability and health status of the prisoners, especially the under-trial prisoners.
It wanted inclusion of medical and other public health professionals, health department officials and relevant civil society organisations in the HPCs to facilitate and monitor the release of prison inmates, adding, alternative forms of custody such as house arrest, open prisons should be considered.
Seeking to ensure that all health facilities, for testing, treatment and medical care should be made available by linking up with local hospitals from public and private sectors for safeguarding health of those who are not released, the appeal said, this should be an opportunity to ensure speedy trials, granting of bail and releasing those who have been granted bail.

Comments

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

The architect of Congolese liberation: The life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba

By Harsh Thakor* Patrice Émery Lumumba remains a central figure in the history of African decolonization, serving as the first Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. Born on July 2, 1925, Lumumba emerged as a radical anti-colonial leader who sought to unify a nation fractured by decades of Belgian rule. His tenure, however, lasted less than seven months before his dismissal and subsequent assassination on January 17, 1961.

Venezuela and the crisis of global order: Erosion of rules-based international order

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The American attack on Venezuela violates every principle of international law that the collective West claims to uphold. The response from the European Union—“we are monitoring the situation”—exposes the hollowness of these claims. WhatsApp gossipers may celebrate this as an act of “bravery,” but what kind of bravery is it to intimidate a neighbour that is neither large in size nor strong in military power?

Search This Blog