The Evolution of Women’s Prisons in India

When we talk about prisons in India, the conversation almost always centres on overcrowding, undertrial delays, and poor infrastructure. But there’s a chapter of this story that rarely gets the attention it deserves – the history of women’s prisons. Women constitute a small fraction of India’s total prison population , yet their experience within the criminal justice system has been shaped by decades of neglect, slow reform, and persistent gender blindness. Understanding how women’s prisons evolved in India is essential to grasping the broader challenges the system still faces today.

The colonial origins of women’s imprisonment in India 🔗

During the colonial era, women who committed crimes – regardless of how minor the offences were – faced severe punishment. Flogging, lashing, and forced labour were common, and solitary confinement was frequently used against female inmates, often causing serious mental health issues. There was no separate infrastructure for women, no recognition of their distinct needs, and no concept of rehabilitation.

In 1870, Mumbai (then Bombay) saw the establishment of what is considered India’s first prison housing women – the Byculla Jail. Initially, it held both male and female inmates. It was only in 1896 that a dedicated facility for female prisoners, known as the Mahila Prison, was constructed. These early steps, however, were exceptions rather than the rule. Across the rest of British India, women continued to be housed in cramped sections of male-dominated prisons, with little regard for their safety or dignity.

The Indian Jail Committee of 1919-20: a turning point 🔗

The Indian Jail Committee of 1919-20, for the first time in Indian prison history, identified reformation and rehabilitation of offenders as the objectives of prison administration. This was a significant departure from the purely punitive approach that had dominated until then.

The Committee recommended that women inmates be housed separately from men and that female jailors be placed in charge of them. Chaired by Alexander Cardew, this commission laid the groundwork for future reforms by formally acknowledging the need for gender-specific treatment within the prison system.

Following these recommendations, a dedicated women’s prison was established in Naini, Uttar Pradesh in 1925, which included special housing and amenities for female offenders, including a delivery room. Yet, despite this progress, implementation across the country remained woefully slow. Until the 1970s, male staff continued to run most prisons housing women in India.

Post-independence reforms and key committees 🔗

After independence, Indian leaders – many of whom had spent years in British prisons during the freedom struggle – brought personal knowledge of prison life into the policy-making process, which influenced the focus on developing new penal policies between 1937 and 1947. However, prison reform moved slowly as the nation focused on broader development priorities.

The Government of India Act, 1919 had transferred control of the Jail Department from the Central Government to the Provincial Governments. After independence, under the Constitution, prison administration became a State subject under the Seventh Schedule. This meant that each state managed its own prisons, leading to wide variation in standards and practices across the country.

The Mulla Committee (1980-83) 🔗

The All India Committee on Jail Reforms, chaired by Justice A. N. Mulla, submitted its report in 1983 containing 658 recommendations, of which 35 pertained exclusively to women in prison. These were among the most concrete proposals for improving conditions for incarcerated women that India had seen up to that point.

The Mulla Committee’s key recommendations for women included: housing women prisoners in separate exclusive institutions or annexes, staffing women’s prisons entirely with female personnel, and extensively providing probation to women offenders. The Committee also called for women prisoners to be informed of their legal rights, for female doctors to conduct medical check-ups upon admission, and for children to be allowed to stay with their imprisoned mothers.

The Justice Krishna Iyer Committee (1987) 🔗

For the first time, the situation of women in prisons was examined in a dedicated manner by the Justice Krishna Iyer Committee, appointed in 1987. This National Expert Committee on Women Prisoners represented a landmark moment in the evolution of India’s approach to female incarceration.

One of its main recommendations was to formulate policy guidelines that address the special needs of women in the criminal correctional process. The Committee suggested the formulation and adoption of a National Policy on Custodial Justice to Women, and recommended the creation of a statutory body to oversee its implementation. It also called for setting up special courts for women and increasing the number of female prison staff and officers.

The Committee also framed a draft Model Prison Manual, with a dedicated chapter making special provision for children of women prisoners. The report was forwarded to State Governments and Union Territory Administrations in December 1987, with a request to examine the recommendations and take action.

The struggle for implementation 🔗

Despite these well-intentioned committees and their detailed recommendations, the gap between policy and practice has remained wide. The All India Committee on Jail Reforms (1980-1983), the Supreme Court of India, and the Committee of Empowerment of Women (2001-2002) have all highlighted the need for comprehensive revision of prison laws, but the pace of change has been disappointing.

A major structural challenge is that prisons have been primarily designed to suit the needs of men, since men have historically constituted the overwhelming majority of the prison population. This often leads to women prisoners and their specific needs receiving only residual importance during policy reforms.

The Women in Prisons India report noted a critical fact: only 17% of women prisoners lived in exclusively female prisons, while the majority were housed in female enclosures within general prisons. These enclosures are often cramped spaces with limited access to facilities that male prisoners use freely.

Landmark judicial interventions 🔗

Where legislative and executive action lagged, the Indian judiciary stepped in to push for reform. Several Supreme Court and High Court decisions have been instrumental in defining and protecting the rights of women prisoners.

Key court rulings 🔗

In Christian Community Welfare Council of India v. Government of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court held that women should not be arrested after sunset and before sunrise, and only in the presence of lady constables. The Court also directed the State Government to set up a committee for police accountability on human rights abuse and to make special provisions for female detainees.

In R.D. Upadhyaya v. State of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court directed that the birthplace of a child born to an imprisoned mother should not be recorded as “prison” on the birth certificate – a small but profoundly humane recognition of the dignity owed to children who are born into no fault of their own.

In Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration (1980), the Supreme Court established that a writ of habeas corpus can be issued to protect prisoners from cruel and inhuman treatment , a ruling that extended to women prisoners facing custodial abuse.

Modern developments: the Model Prisons Act, 2023 🔗

The most significant recent development in this area is the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This new model law was developed to replace three colonial-era statutes – the Prisons Act of 1894, the Prisoners Act of 1900, and the Transfer of Prisoners Act of 1950 – by assimilating their relevant provisions into a single, modern framework.

The Act includes provisions for separate accommodation for women prisoners and transgender individuals, use of technology for transparent prison administration, and a focus on reformation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of prisoners into society. It also provides for vocational training, skill development, legal aid, and incentives for good conduct through parole and furlough.

The Act dedicates Chapter X specifically to the prison regimen for women prisoners, covering Sections 30 to 33. It allows women prisoners to keep their children with them up to the age of six. However, since prisons remain a State subject, the Act serves as a guiding document for states to adopt in their jurisdictions, and adoption has been uneven.

Current status: women in Indian prisons today 🔗

Despite over a century of recommendations and reforms, the numbers tell a story of persistent challenges. According to the NCRB’s Prison Statistics India 2023, women comprise about 4.4% of the total prison population, and many are accompanied by children, raising infrastructure and care challenges.

The occupancy rate among women prisoners in 2023 was around 70%, significantly lower than the 125% rate among male prisoners. While this might seem like a positive figure, it masks the reality that most women remain confined in inadequate enclosures attached to male prisons rather than in purpose-built facilities.

As of the end of 2022, 23,772 women inmates were lodged in jails across India, and only 4,240 of them were housed in exclusive women’s prisons. That means roughly 82% of incarcerated women still live in annexes or enclosures within male-dominated facilities – not fundamentally different from the arrangement that reformers were criticising back in 1919.

Ongoing challenges 🔗

The issues that women prisoners face today echo those identified decades ago. Female prisoners in India face conditions including confinement in small, poorly ventilated cells with inadequate lighting, a lack of basic hygiene facilities such as clean drinking water and sanitation, and vulnerability to sexual abuse. Mental health support remains scarce, and access to trained counsellors and psychologists is extremely limited.

At the systemic level, 26.5% of sanctioned prison staff posts across India remain vacant , further straining the ability of prisons to provide gender-sensitive management. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has noted that the lack of trained correctional staff like psychologists or social workers to deal with women-specific issues continues to add to the problems faced by female inmates.

From confinement to correction: the road ahead 🔗

The history of women’s prisons in India is a story of good intentions hampered by slow execution. From the Indian Jail Committee’s recommendations in 1919 to the Model Prisons Act of 2023, the policy framework has gradually evolved to recognise that women in the criminal justice system have distinct needs that cannot be addressed through a one-size-fits-all approach.

Yet, meaningful change on the ground requires more than model laws and committee reports. It requires states to invest in dedicated infrastructure for women, recruit and train female prison staff, ensure access to healthcare (including mental health services), and create genuine rehabilitation and skill-building programmes. It also requires a shift in mindset – from viewing women in prison as an afterthought to recognising them as individuals with legal rights and the potential for meaningful reintegration into society.

What do you think? Given that recommendations for separate women’s prison facilities have existed since 1919, what do you believe are the biggest barriers to implementing these reforms at the state level? And should the central government take a more active role in ensuring minimum standards for women prisoners across all states, even though prisons are a state subject?

References

1. https://www.mha.gov.in/en/divisionofmha/Women_Safety_Division/prison-reforms
2. https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/download/1586260789Rights%20of%20Women%20Prisoners.pdf
3. https://www.ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR1AXP008.pdf
4. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1923682
5. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/model-prisons-act-2023
6. https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/download/Women%20Behind%20Bars-%20Factsheet.pdf