Over Represented Religious Minorities in Indian Prisons

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released its report titled as Prison Statistics in India 2020.

Findings of the Report related to Minority Communities

The report shows that the minority communities are over represented in Indian prisons. Muslims, Sikhs, as well as Dalits (Scheduled Castes) and Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes) are disproportionately over represented in comparison to their share in the population.

• Muslims: Muslims made up 19.6 per cent of under trials, and constituted 17.4 percent out of all the persons convicted, while the Muslim community constituted only 14.2% of total population.
• Sikhs: They were 3.5 per cent of the total undertrials, and constituted 2.3 per cent of those convicted. The share of Sikhs in the country was only 1.7 per cent.
• Dalits and Adivasis: Dalits constituted up 20.9 per cent both among the undertrials and convicts, despite comprising only 16.6 per cent of India’s population. Adivasis form 13.9 percent of overall convicted persons, while they only 8.6 percent of the country’s population.
• Hindus: Hindus are overrepresented in states where they are in the minority. For eg in J&K Hindus are 28.5% of the population and represent 34-39.5% of undertrials and 42.5-50.5% are convicts.

Suggestions

As the report shows over representation of minorities in prisons, the following suggestions can be made:

• Representations of minorities should be increased in institutions such as Police and judiciary.
• Deeply entrenched prejudices and bias should be tackled with the help of sensitization of Police, Judiciary and other such institutions.
• The under trial languishing in jails may be released under Section 436A Cr.P.C. which lays down the right of an undertrial to apply for bail once s/he has served half of the maximum term of sentence s/he would have served had s/he been convicted.