More than 27% prison inmates in country ‘illiterate’: Govt data

UP HOUSES THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PRISONERS AT 101,297. THE STATE IS ALSO HOME TO THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PRISONERS WHO ARE ILLITERATE

NEW DELHI: As many as 132,729 (27.37%) of the 478,600 prison inmates in the country are “illiterate” while 5,677 hold a technical degree or diploma, according to Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) data.

The prison statistics presented by minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy recently in Parliament were based on a compilation of data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) updated till December 31, 2019.

The data on education of prison inmates showed that the maximum number of 198,872 (or 41.55%) prisoners are educated below Class 10 level.

It showed that 132,729 (27.37%) prison inmates were illiterate, while 103,036 (or 21.52%) studied beyond class 10 but below graduate level. According to the data, 30,201 (6.3%) prison inmates were graduates, while 8,085 (1.68%) were post graduates and as many as 5,677 (1.18%) held a technical degree or diploma.

Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, houses the highest number of prisoners at 101,297. Uttar Pradesh also houses the highest number of prison inmates who are illiterate (31,927), educated up till Class 10 (36,390), beyond class 10 but below graduation (21,269), graduates (8,151), post graduates (2,635) and techies (925), it showed.

West Bengal had not furnished prison statistics for 2018 and 2019 because of which its figures from 2017 were used in the data, while Maharashtra’s category-wise break up was “not available”, the data mentioned.

‘Over 67% prison inmates Hindu, nearly 18% Muslim’

Over 67% of the 478,600 prison inmates in the country are Hindu while nearly 18% Muslim, according to the data.

The data showed that 321,155 (or 67.10%) prison inmates were Hindu, 85,307 (or 17.82%) Muslim, 18,001 (or 3.76%) Sikh, 13,782 (or 2.87%) Christian, and 3,557 (or 0.74%) “others”.

A category-wise break-up of data showed that there were 478,600 prisoners across jails in the country of which 315,409 (65.90%) belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories while 126,393 fell in the “Others” group.