Bombay High Court wants govt reply over kids of women prisoners

The Bombay high court on Friday directed the government to file its reply to the suggestions made by an NGO to ensure that children of women prisoners are cared for and also asked the director general of police (prison) to furnish data of how many women prisoners are there who have small children and there is nobody to look after them.

The division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice Revati Mohite-Dere issued these directions while hearing a PIL seeking steps so that children of prisoners without parents are not deprived of food, shelter and education.

The court has asked the respondents to file reply by February 11. Prayas, an NGO, which works for the rehabilitation of children of women prisoners, had filed a report with number of suggestions in 2014 before the court for proper care of children of women prisoners. The high court had converted these suggestions into a public interest litigation but this matter was pending since long.

Professor Vijay Raghvan of TISS, who is project director of Prayas and also appointed as amicus curia (friend of court) mentioned this matter before the court on Friday and requested the judges to ask the authorities concerned to file their reply on the PIL.

The report said that while women serve their sentence in prison, their children outside are neglected and often become school dropouts because generally father or male members are not available. The report had suggested that when women are produced before the magistrate for remand for the first time, at that stage itself the magistrate should ask the accused if she has minor children and issue appropriate directions if there is nobody to take care of her children.

The report also made many other suggestions, such as the police should inform the accused about her right to take her infant children (below six years) with her in custody and also about her right to admit her children in a childcare institution; the police should inquire whether the accused has minor children who need support or temporary institutionalisation (in the absence of family support or caretakers); prison authorities should allow meeting of such children with their mothers in prison at regular intervals.