Rights of Women Prisoners in India: A Legal Study

Women are given a respectful status in Indian Society; her role is in the society. The role of the mother is the most significant role played by a woman in her whole life. Constitution of India provides the status of equality to all women in India. Indian Constitution provides that it is the duty of the State to protect the rights of women and manage to provide prerequisites of international conventions for safeguarding the rights of women. However, the real condition is that the women in prisons are still facing an end number of problems. Even basic human rights are being ignored despite a number of directions from the judiciary in various cases and recommendations of different Committees. One of the major reasons for the ignorance of the rights of women prisoners is that women prisoners are fewer in number than male prisoners in jails in India. India is a patriarchal society; prisons are constructed according to the needs of men. The purpose of this study is to highlight the problems of women prisoners, the violation of the human rights of women prisoners, the condition of women jails, to enumerate human rights and constitutional rights of the women prisoners, and to suggest some reforms in the Prisons Act, 1894.