Report by Tihar jail shows link between poverty and crime

NEWDELHI: Nearly four out of every five inmates had a monthly income of less than ₹8,000 before they were sent to Tihar jail, according to data from India’s most populated prison that illustrates how strong the relationship between poverty and crime is.

A report prepared by the jail authorities, seen by HT, says that of the 15,468 prisoners in Tihar at the end of November last year, 11,945 (77.2%) earned less than ₹8,000, 667 prisoners (4.3%) earned between ₹16,001 and ₹30,000, and only 341 (2.2%) earned more than ₹30,000 per month.

This is the first such report prepared by the jail authorities in seven years.

The prison, managed by the Delhi government, houses some of the city’s richest and poorest residents across its 400-acre complex. Here, homeless prisoners arrested for petty thefts share space with corporate leaders — including real-estate barons Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Ltd, who have been in the complex since May, 2017.

The report, submitted to the state home department last month, further says that more than half the prisoners did not have regular jobs at the time of their arrest. According to the data, 8,079 (52.2%) either did not work