Don’t segregate prisoners on basis of caste, religion: govt.

The Union government has taken a serious view of some States discriminating against prisoners on the basis of their caste and religion and assigning them work accordingly. Saying that it was unconstitutional, the Union Home Ministry wrote to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories urging them to ensure that their Jail Manuals did not contain any discriminatory provisions.

The Constitution of India prohibited any kind of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, and place of birth.

The Model Prison Manual, 2016, prepared by the Ministry and circulated to all States and Union Territories in May 2016, explicitly prohibited caste and religionbased discrimination of prisoners in the management of the kitchen or cooking of food on a caste or religious basis.

“The manual also provides that any special treatment to a group of prisoners belonging to a particular caste or religion is strictly prohibited. It further provides that no classification of prisoners shall be allowed on grounds of socioeconomic status, caste or class… In case any such provision exists, immediate steps must be taken to amend/remove the discriminatory provision from the Manual/Act. It is reiterated that there should be no castebased assignment of duties or work in the prisons,” the Ministry said.

Stating that the medical care of prisoners was one of the significant concerns of prison management, the Ministry said it had been sending advisories from time to time to ensure that due importance was given to the physical and mental wellbeing of inmates.

Going by the provisions of the Model Prison Manual, 2016, periodic health checkup of prisoners should be conducted.

Besides, health checkup or screening of prisoners for infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and Hepatitis should be done.

A special health screening camp for women and transgender prisoners was also among the priorities.

Data relating to the healthcheck camps should be updated on the ePrisons portal implemented as part of the eprisons project to create endtoend information technology solutions for the automation of prison operations. The Ministry also stressed digitisation and availability of prisoner records on an electronic platform accessible to designated authorities enabling them to have direct access to information related to the prisoners.