Elderly prisoners to get special care in jails!

By M.Y.Siddiqui

Union government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular on July 1, 2025 directing the state governments and union territory administrations to make suitable provisions for special and accessible accommodation in prisons and correctional institutions for the elderly prisoners, keeping in view their physical limitations. This decision comes as a belated response to the death in a Mumbai prison of father Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021, an octogenarian Indian Catholic Jesuit priest, for want of proper geriatric healthcare and neglect following massive criticism of the nation abroad. Priest Stan Swamy was also a tribal rights activist and incarcerated by the RSS Pariwar government for alleged terrorism activity. This is also in consideration of the fact that prisons in the country house several vulnerable inmates, including elderly individuals who often require special assistance and support to manage their daily routines in a custodial environment.

In the circular, the union government has resolved to create an ecosystem for protecting, caring and providing for the wellbeing of its elderly citizens. Keeping this in mind, a decision has been taken to provide all round special care for the elder inmates in the prisons across the country. Special attention has to be given to the dietary requirements of elderly prisoners, with meal plans curated in keeping with the challenges of advanced age. It may also be ensured that adequate healthcare facilities, including mental healthcare services, are made available in prisons to address the special needs of elderly inmates, the circular states. It mentions further that the prison staff may also be sensitized and briefed on this. The circular expects the state governments and union territory administrations to take appropriate measures to implement the directives for the welfare of elderly prisoners.

This policy decision comes after several ears of Father Stan Swamy’s incarceration simply because of denial of necessary healthcare aids by the jail authorities leading to his death. That had hit headlines in the foreign media the world over with India receiving frontal attacks for denial of human rights to political prisoners like priest Swamy. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) too had failed to rescue him. Even otherwise, since the RSS Pariwar union government took over in 2014, the NHRC has become dysfunctional and redundant. NHRC has also been disaccredited by the Untied Nations for its failure to safeguard human rights of the people of India. RSS affiliated personnel, who serve the Sangh’s agenda, man it. If at all, it takes cognizance of human rights violations, it is in the non-BJP ruled states just to serve the electoral gains of the BJP. The NHRC lacks total public credibility and its findings do not enjoy public trust.

As in 2022, there were 1,330 prisons in India housing 573,220 inmates, including pre-trial detainees. The official capacity of these prisons was 436,266, overcrowded by 130 percent of capacity, according to the official information as well as the World Prison Brief. A significant portion of the prison population comprised 77 percent under-trial prisoners, highlighting the issue of prolonged detention before trial, as on December 31, 2022. Prisons numbering 1,330 include central jails, district jails, sub-jails, women’s jails, open jails, Borstal schools, and special jails. Extreme overcrowding in jails raises concerns about the efficiencies and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in the country. Besides, there are massive leakages of funds (corruptions) in jails, which in the current collusive culture, covert or overt, are rampant in jail administrations. As a result, prisoners live in sub-human conditions; there are acute shortages of manpower. A large number of staff is contractual, making hay while the sun shines.

There have been several commissions and committees on jail reforms since the Independence to make prisons a model of reforms that rechristened prisons as the Correctional Institutions to reform inmates as good citizens. But contrary to this, prisoners in India having lived in sub-human conditions and repressive regime, end up as hardened criminals, a stark reality of sub-human standards of human rights of prisoners in Indian jails! 

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