N. Ravi is a revolutionary activist. He joined Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union (APRSU) in 1985 while studying for a Master’s of Science (Agriculture?) and became a full time activist of the Revolutionary Student Union. He was arrested in 1988 and spent a year in Musheerabad jail with TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) cases. After his release on bail, he joined the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi for his Ph.D. In 1998, he left his studies to join the revolutionary movement in Bihar and later Jharkhand. He worked there till 2009. He was arrested in November 2009 along with his wife, and spent nearly seven years in the prisons of Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Upon his release in April 2016, he has been participating in democratic and progressive movements and is engaged in writing political and polemical articles from a Marxist point of view and translating books from English to Telugu and vice-versa. He was again arrested for eight months for working in an anti-fascist organization, Forum Against Hindutva Fascist Offensive. His collection of articles on the Caste Question in India is published as a book in Telugu, English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Tamil languages. He is currently an Executive Committee member of the Former Revolutionary Students Forum.
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There are about five and half lakh1 prisoners in Indian jails. Among these prisoners, over 75% of them are under-trial prisoners. In the European countries, this figure is less than 25%. The ratio of under-trial prisoners to convicts in India is one of the highest in the world. Prisons are severely overcrowded, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The occupancy in these jails is nearly 125–140% beyond their capacity. An overwhelming proportion of the prisoners belong to Dalit, Adivasi, OBC,2 and minority communities.3
The slow judicial process is the main reason behind the large number of under-trials. Due to overcrowding the prisons are beset with the problem of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions.
Medical facilities in prisons are understaffed and under-resourced. Many prisoners die due to delayed medical treatment. Custodial torture and abuse by prison staff remain widespread despite legal prohibitions. Illegal punishments (solitary confinement, beatings) are quite common. Bribery is often demanded for basic facilities, relatively better placement in the barracks, visits from relatives, etc.
Weaker prisoners additionally suffer from abuse from the goons, mafia gangs etc., who enjoy special privileges by bribing the jail officials.
These are the general conditions that prevail in Indian prisons.
Let me now describe these issues based on my personal experience. I have spent eight years in prisons in Musheerabad, Hazaribagh, Charlapally, Visakhapattanam, Tenughat and Khammam4 as an under-trial Maoist prisoner in 1988–1989, 2009–2016, 2019–2020. Except for a few months in Tenughat sub-jail in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district and for two weeks in Khammam district jail in Telangana, I was always kept in single cells and the infamous Anda cell (in Hazaribagh) [See below]. I have observed various prison conditions, though I do not have much direct experience of general barrack life.
Here one has to say that there are certain differences in the prison conditions for political prisoners and for other prisoners. I will attempt to present a picture of both.
As far as food and other jail facilities are concerned, the conditions are similar. Political prisoners—especially the senior ones—face many restrictions regarding their movement in the jail. Their contact with other prisoners is often severely restricted. However, they are generally treated with respect by the fellow inmates and jail officials as they often lead struggles for the improvement of prison conditions such as better food, medical care, and premature release of convicts, etc.
During my first stint in Musheerabad jail during 1988–1989, I was kept in cells along with other political prisoners. At that time newspapers were provided, but many parts were redacted—especially news related to jails or the Naxalite movement. During interviews with relatives and friends, special branch police personnel would stand beside us listening to the conversation. We were allowed only two books at a time for reading. Despite the Supreme Court rulings forbidding it, we were handcuffed when taken to courts.
In 1994, Naxalite prisoners led a state-wide hunger strike that lasted for 58 days (December 26, 1994 to February 21, 1995) with 32 demands regarding callous conditions of the jails and 11 political demands. A strong solidarity movement was built outside also by the Struggle Committee to Defend Prisoners Rights led by now deceased Professor G. N. Saibaba and others. Various mass organizations joined and conducted various solidarity programs. Relay hunger strikes, where people sat on a hungers strike daily, were continuously held in Hyderabad and other cities as long as the hunger strikes in the jails continued. Seeing that the prisoners are not budging, government bowed to the pressure and accepted the demands. Many convicts were released through a special government order after a Sentence Review Board was constituted and recommended the pre-mature release of prisoners who fulfilled certain conditions like minimum number of years spent in prison etc. Censorship of the newspaper, eavesdropping at the interviews stopped. Food allowance were increased. Naxalites prisoners were allotted separate barracks and kitchens, which allowed them to focus on political studies, discussions, etc. These improvements lasted nearly a decade. However, due to the decline in the revolutionary movement in the then united Andhra Pradesh and later in the twin Telugu states5 and the decrease in Naxalite prisoners, the jail authorities gradually revoked these facilities. Now, every time, one is forced to fight for basic rights like medical care, books, etc. Sometimes, one is forced to fight it out in the courts and take orders from the courts. Recently in Charlapally jail, on behalf of comrade Amitab Bagchi (72), lawyers had to file a petition in the High Court to direct the jail officials to take him to hospital as his long incarceration for 16 years as an under-trial prisoner took its toll on his eyesight and hearing. Likewise, jail authorities even denied dictionaries as part of the harassment and they were only allowed after a court order.
Conditions in Jharkhand Jails
From my personal experience, I can write about the conditions in Jharkhand prisons. In Jharkhand jails there is much overcrowding. Therefore as soon as a new prisoner comes (interestingly called “naya aamad” meaning new income) he or she is asked to cough up money to the prisoner warder of the aamad ward. (Generally repeat offenders or regular jail birds are made prisoner warders of the aamad wards. They have to regularly pay a commission to the jailer or head warder for getting this coveted post). If the new inmates are from relatively middle class backgrounds and don’t cough up the money, then they are allotted beds near the toilets and made to clean them. In Tenughat jail, the prisoner warder along with his goon friends beat the new inmates and threaten them on the first day itself and made to call their families to deposit money in the given bank accounts. The amount varies depending on their assessment of the financial condition of the newcomers. Prison authorities ignore this, as they get their monthly commission. This is more or less the case in all the jails in Bihar and Jharkhand.
That was the prevailing situation when I was taken to that jail in January 2014. So, we, the Naxalite prisoners, decided to end this practice. It was routine matter for Naxalite prisoners to meet daily during lunch hour or otherwise. One day we decided upon the next course of action. So, the next day when all prisoners gathered for taking food, we announced that we are going to teach these goons a lesson and asked all to join us. We went to the yard where those goons were resting and we beat them. Within minutes, siren was sounded and security guards from outside the prison rushed inside to lathi-charge6 and to disperse all.
The beating of the new inmates stopped, but the administration and the goons found new ways of extortion after some time.
Food quality in Jharkhand prisons is generally very poor. There is a lot of corruption here. Though by law the prisoners have to be given meat once a week, it is never provided. In the name of providing special food on the occasion of Durga Puja (Dussehra), Holi, and Sankranthi, (Hindu festivals), Ramzan (Ramadan), and Christmas prisoners are asked to sign away their weekly meat allowance in exchange for occasional special meals. But there is a huge gap in the costs involved in providing the special food twice or thrice a year and the weekly meat provision.7 In fact there is also directive by the Bihar government against this practice. But this goes on with impunity, violating the directive. We had to take up a hunger strike to stop the reduction of the weekly meat to once a month prior to the festival. General prisoners were not strong enough to insist on it. As we were confined to Anda cell, there were limitations in organizing them. Ultimately, we succeeded in securing weekly meat for those in Anda cell and other solitary cells. The authorities continued cutting down the meat provision for the general prisoners.
The general quality of the food is very poor. Dal and curry are watery. In central prisons, generally sufficient quantity of rice is provided. But in Tenughat, one has to fight daily even for rice. When we confronted the superintendent regarding this and regarding the general quality and quantity of the food, he was so shameless to say that he had to give five lakh rupees 7 in bribes to the higher authorities to stop his transfer from there, at the far end of his career. Therefore, he had to earn that amount from somewhere, apart from monthly fixed amounts he had to give to the higher-ups.
The Tenughat superintendent openly admitted this fact, and it is the case almost in all the jails.
In Hazaribagh jail, the milk used to make tea was made of very cheap milk powder, perhaps only manufactured only for use in jails. There was a directive regarding this that only milk or milk made of Amul (the brand of a quasi-government cooperative milk federation) milk powder had to be used. When we, in Anda cell went on a hunger strike in 2011 for three-four days on some other pressing demands, one of our demands was that the directive be implemented. From then on they had to shift to providing proper milk for tea, as well as curd.
Another huge source of income for the jail officials is stealing the convicts’ wages. They are never given their full, entitled wages. Even when they are given some of their wages, they have to bribe the officials. The wages to be given to the convicts are not regularly increased as per the Supreme Court judgement that dictated that the minimum wages prescribed to the workers outside must be given to the prisoners depending on whether they are skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, etc., after the deducting the overall expenditure incurred by the jail department per person. Minimum wages outside are increased after worker struggles once every few years. But the wages of prisoners are not increased correspondingly.8
It is a general rumor that the contractor who supplies provisions to the jails in Jharkhand can get even jailors and superintendents transferred if they don’t fall in line. However, it usually never comes to that as they enjoy mutually beneficial “arrangements.”
Common Features Across Indian Jails
There are some common features in all the jails of India, as they basically follow the British era jail manual and the feudal practices established at that time by the colonizers and their puppets. In the Telugu state jails, all new entrants are asked to stand in line, and the superintendent comes for inspection. At that time, prisoners are told to stand barefoot. Only the “Naxalite” prisoners do not obey this feudalistic practice. The submission of the prisoner to the authority starts from there. Even though the under-trials are only accused persons and not convicts, jail authorities view them as only criminals. By law, under-trials should not be assigned any work. But they are engaged in all types of cleaning works in the jails. Only for certain kinds of jobs they are paid. But they are just paid as per the whims and fancy of the jail authorities. No system is followed for that.
In the Telugu states, every morning the superintendent goes to visit all the barracks. During this “round,” prisoners can air their grievances also, regarding their cases, medical condition if any, etc. They also inspect for the cleanliness of the barracks and toilets etc. But in Jharkhand jails there was never ever any such “rounds.” So prisoners do not get to air their grievances. It is nearly impossible to get audience with the superintendent or jailor. Sometimes we had to refuse to take food even to visit the jailor/superintendent, even though it is clearly stated in the jail manual that it is the duty of the superintendent to go for a daily round. Tenughat sub-jail, and sub-jails in general in Jharkhand, used to be very filthy, sometimes with the overflowing sewage. Superintendent never set foot in the barracks and the yard for inspection. We had to force the jailor to come and take a look at the conditions. Only then it was repaired.
Medical Facilities
Every jail has a hospital, but there is always a paucity of funds for the medicines. After the formation of Telangana, the budget allocated for medicines and supplies in jails was drastically cut down. Only a meagre INR9 2000 (USD 70) per day is allotted towards medical expenses for all the inmates in Charlapally central jail, which houses 1500-2000 prisoners. Many inmates suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure etc. who need daily medication. Apart from them, there are outpatients. Superintendents also urged us to fight with the government for more allocation of funds or file petitions in courts.
In Jharkhand jails, the situation is far worse. Many sub-jails10 have no doctors. In Tenughat jail, where I was stationed for some time, an RMP (Registered Medical Practitioner) lifer convict was the in-charge doctor. He was not even a medically qualified and legally registered RMP. He could however treat the patients for all minor ailments, and he was indispensable. Therefore, when a Government Order was issued by the Jharkhand government after a hunger strike by the lifers (and a bandh call—a general strike—was made by the CPI(Maoist) in support of it in 2014), for the release of convicts who were qualified and recommended by the board constituted for that purpose, the superintendent did not recommend him, though he was more than qualified.
Prisoners have to be taken to outside hospital for treatment when treatment cannot be done in the jail hospital. Some criminal Dons, or bosses, misuse this provision to bribe the doctors and other officials and go out in the name of treatment and enjoy luxurious lives in the outside hospitals. Bihar and Jharkhand high courts ruled that a medical board has to be constituted to recommend treatment outside. These Dons circumvent this provision relatively easily though they now had to bribe more persons. However, this made the life tougher for the general prisoners. A medical board could not easily be assembled as the doctors in the outside hospitals were already overburdened with their work there. Even when they recommend outside treatment, there was a problem of the provision of an escort. Escort police had to be provided by the general police and not the jail officials. Sometimes, escort police were not provided for months. For Naxalite prisoners this was much harder as they are supposed to get more “secure escort.” In one such instance, we had to go on hunger strike for three days demanding that a “Naxalite” prisoner be taken to hospital. Only then was she taken to the hospital. Sometimes, we in Anda cells had to go on hunger strike to be taken to the jail hospital as well.
In another instance one general prisoner in Tenughat jail was taken to an outside hospital and a catheter was inserted into his urethra. He was asked to come again after 15 days for removal. Meanwhile, Assembly elections were declared in Jharkhand and for almost two months no escort was provided.11 He had to walk around carrying that urine bag. He could have been taken to the hospital with prison security staff as they do in case of emergencies. But the superintendent did not provide that escort. Such are the pathetic medical conditions prevailing, especially in Jharkhand jails.
Situation in Anda Cells
Anda cells are prisons within prisons. They got this name because of their egg shape. There are certain differences in the structure of Anda cells in different jails. These Anda cells gained notoriety throughout India and afar after G. N. Saibaba12 was incarcerated in them.
These cells in egg-shaped barracks are a closed structure. There is a grate above, in the small open space in front of the cells. As a ‘Maoist’ leader, I was directly taken to the Anda cell on my second day of entry into the jail, after spending the first night in the Aamad ward. Throughout my incarceration in Hazaribagh Jayaprakash Narayan central prison, I was kept only in an Anda cell.
There were no fans in Anda cells or, for that matter, in any cells in Jharkhand prisons. There was no scope for any cross ventilation in Anda cells. It was unbearable in summers. There was no sunlight in winters. We went on hunger strike demanding that fans be provided in cells on par with other barracks. Deputy Inspector General of Jails from Ranchi, the state capital, visited Hazaribagh jail. He argued that there was the risk of committing suicides in cells if ceiling fans were provided. Then we brought to his notice that in the prisons of Andhra Pradesh, ceiling fans are indeed provided in cells also and that if they are so apprehensive about that then they could as well provide wall fans. Finally they accepted all our demands. From then on, fans were provided in all the cells in Hazaribagh and later throughout the Jharkhand jails.
Visitations
Prisoners have a right to visitations by relatives and friends. Under-trial prisoners are entitled for one visit per week and convicted prisoners for one visit per fifteen days. Hazaribagh prison has perhaps the worst facility for these visitations. There were only two windows with two three layers of iron meshes. Visitation was permitted only from 8 AM to 12 Noon. Within these four hours of time nearly 150 to 200 hundred prisoners have to complete their conversations through those two windows. So, at any time, fifteen to twenty people would be standing on both the sides of the windows and keep shouting so that something is audible to their near and dear ones. After repeated fight with the jail authorities they extended the time of visitation up to 4 PM. The requests to increase the space and windows did not yield any result. They typically came up with the answer that the jail is up for renovation, which never materialized due to red-tapism and some legal hurdles.
Though it is clearly mentioned in the prison manuals and pronounced in various judgements that family and friends can visit the prisoners, authorities in various states issue orders restricting these visitations in the name of security.
Literature and Letters
Many jails are notorious for not delivering letters to and from prisoners. Though there are many judgements about giving any non-proscribed books to prisoners, they do not always follow these rules and judgements, especially in the case of Naxalite prisoners. For one year, I was in Charlapally prison, in Hyderabad while my wife, B. Anuradha, was in Hazaribagh prison. Naturally we wrote letters to one another, always taking care to register-post them so that we could track them. Initially, in Hazaribagh prison either they were not posting her letters or not delivering my letters to her. The books I sent her were also not given to her. Then she filed a petition in the Sessions court (District courts) regarding this violation of her rights and also went on hunger strike for three days demanding that the books and letters be given to her. When the judge ruled in her favor, the jail authorities started to deliver every letter and book.
In Jharkhand and Bihar, general police conduct raids on jails to confiscate illegal mobile phones, etc. In one such raids, the police took away all my letter correspondence, other written records, and court judgements etc. Immediately, the next day, we protested by observing a day’s hunger strike and also wrote petitions to the High Court, Human Rights Commissions, etc. They had to return every single paper confiscated after Human Rights Commission ordered the Superintendent of Police of Hazaribagh to return them.
Handcuffing
There are explicit Supreme Court rulings that the prisoners shall not be handcuffed while transporting them from or to court or hospital. But the police, as well as the jail authorities, and even the judiciary do not care at all about these rulings, which constitutes the law of the land. We petitioned the courts to implement the Supreme Court judgements. Only then, they stopped handcuffing us.
Thus, in our experience we had to take recourse with hunger-strikes on many issues from time to time and also file petitions in the courts to fight for our rights. Sometimes we just wrote slogans on papers and held them aloft in the court premises to catch people’s attention. “Prison Rights” published by the Human Rights Law Network13 and various judgements by high courts and supreme courts and circulars (Government Orders) by the governments aided us in our fight. We also had to try to mobilize outside support, as well as the help of the media for the struggles. Only then we could we be successful in our struggles for our rights.
There is a saying in Jharkhand jails that “jail kaa kanoon dhain din kaa”: rules in prisons only last for 2, 3 days. Prisoners’ rights are also won and lost depending on the officials, prisoners, and their strength, etc. One needs to constantly keep fighting for them.
- 1 lakh = 100,000—Material
- Other backward class—Material
- (National Crime Record Bureau. Prison Data from NCRB: Year and State-wise Number Undertrial and Convicted Prisoners, Prison Capacity and Occupancy Ratio, https://dataful.in/datasets/19004).
- Musheerabad district jail (demolished in the 1990s) and the newly constructed Charlapally Central jail are in Hyderabad, Telangana. Hazaribagh and Tenughat jails are in Jharkhand and Visakhapatnam jail is in Andhra Pradesh.
- After nearly about one and half decades of struggle for a separate state of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh state was divided into two states: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
- A coordinated baton charge—Material
- Generally, only family members can deposit money. Sometimes, when the conditions are favourable and the movement outside can provide some money, it still must be deposited only by family members.
- An average unskilled worker gets Rs. 500 daily wage. This amount represents more than two and a half years of earnings of an unskilled worker.
- Indian Rupees.—Material
- There are central, district, and sub-jails. There are 2-5 central jails in each state depending on the size of the state. Convicted prisoners with more than seven years sentence are kept here. Those under-trial prisoners and prisoners with lighter sentence belonging to the districts where these jails are situated are also placed here. Each district has a district jail. There are a few sub-jails within every district where local offenders with minor felonies are placed.
- Prisons do not have exclusive security personnel for escorting prisoners to hospitals or courts. They depend on the general police, and the police claim staffing shortages on the pretext that they are providing security for the elections.
- G. N. Saibaba was a former professor of English at Delhi University and a prominent civil liberties activist. He was known for his outspoken criticism of state policies, especially in relation to tribal rights, militarisation, and dissent. Despite being over 90% physically disabled and dependent on a wheelchair, he was arrested in 2014 under the UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] and later sentenced to life imprisonment, a case that drew widespread national and international concern over human rights, due process, and the treatment of disabled prisoners. He was later acquitted of all charges by the High Court of Nagpur, Maharashtra. But the long prison life took its toll on his health and he passed away in a hospital while undergoing treatment within a year of his release.
- Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) is an NGO founded in 1989 by a small group of concerned lawyers and social activists. Today, HRLN is considered the India’s leading public interest law group, with a national network of more than 200 lawyers, paralegals, and social activists in 26 states/Union Territories.