Playful childhood lost within the prison walls

Sriganganagar, Rajasthan: Akriti is almost six now, but her childhood has been spent largely inside the prison walls of the Sriganganagar Central Jail in Rajasthan. She has not committed any crime. Her mother, Nisha Munjal (37), is an undertrial arrested on charges of drug trafficking under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act), 1985.

Children are allowed to stay with their mothers in jail until they attain the age of six. Of the total 590 inmates lodged in the central jail, 30 are women prisoners. Three of these undertrials currently have one child each living with them in the prison. In September 2024, there were five children inside the jail.

Reena (20), arrested on charges of murdering her mother-in-law, gave birth to a boy in jail two months ago. She was recently shifted to the women’s jail in Bikaner to ensure better care for her child. Jaswinder Kaur (31), arrested under the NDPS Act, was granted bail recently. She had entered the jail with her one-month-old son, Pradeep, who turned two while living inside the prison and celebrated two birthdays there. The child has since been able to see the outside world following his mother’s release.

“If I get a chance to be released on bail like Jaswinder Kaur, I will be able to send Akriti to school. She can also study like other children,” Nisha said. “I applied for bail several times, but without any positive outcome. Soon, I will apply again. I have full confidence in the court.”

The first information report against Nisha was registered at the Sadulshahar police station in Sriganganagar district on September 26, 2020, under Sections 8 and 21 of the NDPS Act. According to the FIR, the police stopped her during patrolling and seized 1,200 Tramadol tablets from her bag during a search. On court orders, she was sent to judicial custody on September 28, 2020, and has been in jail since then. The hearing in her case has been scheduled for January 22. 

Slow bails

Advocate Bharat Bhushan Nagpal, who initially represented Nisha, said the police filed a chargesheet in the NDPS court in Sriganganagar after completing the investigation. In 2022, the case was transferred to the court of the Additional District Judge in Sadulshahar.

Nisha’s bail pleas have been rejected three times by the trial court and three times by the Rajasthan High Court. In her third bail petition, her lawyer Priya Bishnoi argued that the seizure was illegal because the officer who conducted it was not authorised under Sections 42 and 43 of the NDPS Act, which govern who can carry out searches and seizures and under what circumstances. 

She also contended that mandatory safeguards under Sections 50 and 52A, relating to an accused person’s right to be searched before a magistrate or gazetted officer and the proper handling and documentation of seized narcotics, had not been followed.

“The petitioner has been in custody since September 26 and has a small child with her. The hearing of the case may take a lot of time. Therefore, her third bail petition should be accepted,” she pleaded. 

Public prosecutor Mukhtiar Khan opposed the bail plea, arguing that the recovery involved a commercial quantity of drugs and that Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which imposes stringent conditions on granting bail in such cases, barred any relief. The High Court rejected the petition on December 1, 2023.

Jodhpur-based Bishnoi, who represented Nisha in the third bail plea, says, "The court always considers the merits. It is not necessary that the court should look at any other case with the same approach that it adopts in one case. Judges have different approaches in every case."

According to Nisha, while rejecting her second bail petition on March 23, 2023, the HC had directed the trial court to expedite the trial, but the case was not moving forward rapidly in the trial court. Statements of many witnesses are yet to be recorded.​​​  

In this regard, advocate Dharmendra Kumar Sharma, who is representing Nisha in the trial court (ADJ court), says the recording of evidence is still going on in the case.

Confirming this, public prosecutor Major Singh of the ADJ court confirms that the witnesses are yet to be examined in the case. Jodhpur-based advocate Dron Kaushik, who has represented Nisha in the second bail petition in the HC, says that once the witnesses are examined in the trial court, Nisha should again present a petition for bail. “Often, the changed circumstances of the case also prove to be favourable for bail. Whenever a bail petition comes up for consideration, the court takes into account the circumstantial changes in that case.”

Children growing up in prison 

Nisha’s father-in-law, Chimanlal Munjal (60), says that Nisha has two elder children who live with their maternal grandfather. “They visit us whenever they feel like, but due to illnesses, it is not possible for me and my wife to take care of the children. My son Gaurav is also facing a case under the NDPS Act.”

When the case was registered against Nisha, Gaurav was in jail. He was later granted bail. Gaurav has arranged a lawyer for Nisha, and he himself pays the fees of the lawyer. His family hails from Dabli Rathan village in Hanumangarh district.

Jail officials claim that they try their best to provide necessary facilities to the children in jail as per the Supreme Court guidelines. "The jail administration provides milk, food, clothes, baby powder, soap and oil for massage, toys, pencils, etc. to the children living with women in the jail, but creche and nursery are not present as there is a lack of space," Jail Superintendent Dr Abhishek Sharma tells 101Reporters. 

Dr Sharma adds that they try their best for the entertainment and proper upbringing of these children. However, their world is confined within the four walls of the prison, and they are completely unaware of what the outside world is like and how to live there. They do not know anything about relationships.​​​​​ 

Nisha is happy with the facilities provided for children in jail. Akriti was not born in jail, but Nisha recalls how the doctors in the jail would do routine check-ups when Reena was pregnant. She adds that Reena was taken to a government hospital for her delivery.

According to the Prison Statistics of India, 2022, report of the National Crime Records Bureau, 53 women prisoners are living with their 58 children in the jails of Rajasthan. Across the country, a total of 1,537 women are living with their 1,764 children in the country's jails. Of them, the number of undertrial women prisoners is 1,312, and the number of children living with them is 1,479. Similarly, the number of women serving sentences after being convicted is 198, and the number of children living with them is 230. 

As per the data, the highest number of 325 women in the country are in jails of Uttar Pradesh, with whom their 365 children are living. There are 300 women and their 331 children in Bihar jails, and 160 women and their 213 children in jails of West Bengal. The figures recorded in the report are as of December 31, 2022.  

According to the Children of Incarcerated Caregivers-2024 India Prison Nursery Report, India’s prison system faces numerous challenges, including overcrowding, traumagenic conditions, and inadequate facilities. These challenges are particularly acute for mothers in prison, who face unique difficulties in maintaining relationships with their families and accessing the resources they need to care for themselves and their children, and for their children who are socialised in such a punitive environment.

Nisha’s daughter lives in a similar environment, unaware of the outside world. Nisha has also seen very little of the world in the last four years because most of her court appearances are through video conferencing. As of now, it is difficult to say when she will be able to see the light of the world.

(Amarpal Singh Verma is a Rajasthan-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters.) 

This story has been produced by 101Reporters, an independent news agency with a network of 3,000+ freelance journalists across the country, in collaboration with Crime & Punishment, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.