Author(s): Dr. Y Padmaja Rani

Abstract: Nelson Mandela had once said “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones”. Prison is an institution for the confinement of persons, who have been held in judicial custody by supreme authority of a state or who have been deprived of their liberty following conviction for a crime. A person found guilty of crimes may be required to serve a sentence in prison. Women in our society are not even safe in their own homes and when a woman is arrested for some crime, the case becomes special. The trauma of separation from their kids and other family members they face is worse than the sentence they are given. Kiran Bedi writes about the Tihar Jail in her book “It's Always Possible”, “Women prisoners were subjected to the most humiliating experiences, which robbed them of what little dignity and self-respect they reached the prison with. It must be considered some sort of miracle that these women managed to cling on to their sanity, despite the overwhelming odds they faced.” As India is a patriarchal society, women have traditionally felt inferior to men. We continue to come across incidents where women are raped by men and abused by her relations. When she retaliates, she is declared an offender and dumped into prison in violation of her basic human rights. Many women belonging to lower economic strata are often dragged into unlawful activities such as drug dealing, theft and prostitution while all they are trying to achieve is but meeting their basic needs.

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