Published on December 11, 2023
Ahmedabad: Nearly 32% of the convicts and 47% of the undertrials lodged in Gujarat’s prisons are in the age group of 18-30 years. According to the Prison Statistics India (PSI) report for 2022 by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the state had a ratio of 2.2:1 for undertrials to convicts. Detainees account for 2% of the total inmates as on December 31, 2022.
The report indicated that 77% of convicts (3,965) have studied up to Class 10, whereas 5.5% were graduates and above.
Correspondingly, for the undertrials, it was 68% and 7% respectively. Of the total number of convicts, 23 were from other countries, whereas 234 were from other states of India. Among the undertrials, 191 were from other countries, and 1,192 from other states.
The report indicated that 39 children lived with their mothers who were behind bars. Four of them were living with women convicts and the rest with women undertrials. The report mentioned an anganwadi facility created at prisons with a high number of children.
In 2022, 151 convicts, 218 undertrials and one detainee reported mental health issues in Gujarat.
There were nine suicides by inmates during the year and 60 inmates died of natural causes, according to the report. There were nine inmates who were behind bars beyond completion of their prison term for not paying fines.
Gujarat ranked second among the states in terms of production behind bars — the inmates produced goods worth Rs 36.9 crore in 2022, the second highest in India after Tamil Nadu where the products worth Rs 53.4 crore were made by prisoners.
Parth Shastri Archive 