International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160     Impact Factor: 9.24

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 7, Issue 4 (July-August 2025) Submit your research before last 3 days of August to publish your research paper in the issue of July-August.

Women prisoners and their children under the Indian Criminal Justice system

Author(s) Ms. P Lalrem ruati, Dr Mridula Devi
Country India
Abstract Traditionally most of the prison inmates are male and the prison environment is therefore shaped by the needs of males and do not cater to the special needs of women prisoners. The Prison Act, 1894 contains no provisions regarding the welfare of the women prisoners. Prison in India and their administration is State subject covered by item 4 under the State List in the 7th Scheduled of the Constitution of India. The management and administration of prisons falls exclusively in the domain of the State Government and is governed by the Prison Manuals of the respective State governments. Although women still constitute a small minority of prison population but their number is increasing. In addition to the common kinds of distress men and women experience in prison women are more vulnerable for gender discrimination, neglect, violence, physical and sexual abuse. In R.D.Upadhyaya v. State of Andhra Pradesh and others (AIR 2006 SC 1946), the Supreme Court suggested that female prisoners be allowed to keep their children until they attain the age of 6 years. No doubt, women are also not free from involvement in crime; the law does not make any provision that women just because they look after a child could be exempted from the operation of laws. Therefore, when a mother is prosecuted, their children may need to stay with them inside jail. When prison in India is facing a lot of drawbacks, the question is what would be the impact on this child? Will the prison environment be good for the upbringing of children when there is no fault of them with regards to the criminal prosecution against his/her mother. They may be the most neglected and forgotten child. Therefore, in this paper the author attempted to explore the status of women prisoners and their children in the context of the Indian criminal justice system.
Keywords Prison, women prisoner and children, plight, victim
Published In Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2025
Published On 2025-07-25
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.51920
Short DOI https://doi.org/g9vpjd

Share this