The jigsaw puzzle of connecting Rani with her children

Mumbai, Maharashtra: When Rani* was lodged in Adharwadi Jail, Kalyan, under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code in 2019, she had left her son Ibhaan*, then aged five, under her sister’s care. She longed to see him, but did not know how. One of her cellmates encouraged her to talk to social workers visiting the prison. After a few months, Rani finally reached out to the team led by Reena Harilal Jaiswal, a social worker at Prayas, TATA Institute of Social Science (TISS).

“I do not know anything about my child, and my friend does not bring him here to meet me,” Rani had said, before sharing the mobile number with Jaiswal. Initially, Rani had referred to her sister as a friend in the belief that it would help bring Ibhaan to the jail under the name of shelter. 

Jaiswal’s team got into action immediately and started dialling the number. 

“The number just did not work. We kept calling, but no one answered for months together,” Jaiswal said. “If we have free time, we would use it to reach her friend.” 

Jaiswal also spoke to the personnel at Taloja Police Station in Raigad district of Maharashtra, who said that they had given the child to someone Rani knew, but did not have any record to show. Rani was arrested by Taloja Police from the Taloja MIDC area on the charge of murdering her husband.

Jaiswal explained that according to the police manual, police personnel should enquire about who will take care of the arrested woman’s minor children, or whether they should be admitted to the child welfare services.

After six to seven months of dialling the number every now and then, the call was finally answered. Though Jaiswal confronted the woman, saying Ibhaan was with her, she was not ready to divulge her whereabouts. 

“She told me that until she spoke to Rani, she could not provide any details,” Jaiswal recalled. 

The social worker explained the situation to Rani, adding that they can help further only if she provides a little more information about herself. “That was when she confided that Ibhaan was with her sister.” 

Jaiswal and her team hit a deadlock when the number went out of service again for two to three months. When they spoke the next time, the team threatened Rani’s sister that they had informed the police, and if she switched off the mobile phone again, they would track her down.  

Based on an incomplete address at Karjat in Raigad district that she provided, they located her. On meeting her, the team explained that it had been two years since Rani had met her son, and promised to pay for the transportation to bring Ibhaan to meet his mother the next day.

However, the woman did not show up. “She switched off her phone again, but we kept calling. She answered at noon and informed us that she was on her way to Odisha,” Jaiswal said.  

With no options left to connect Rani with Ibhaan, Jaiswal and her team got in touch with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district of Odisha and the District Probationary Officer (DPO). They also connected with the sarpanch of the village, where Rani’s other daughter, Sarika* (16), was also living. 

The DPO visited the house and accompanied the children to CWC to know if Ibhaan and Sarika can be enrolled in any scheme. However, due to stereotypes around the word “shelter” for children of an undertrial, they did not take admission. 

Since then, Jaiswal and team have been in touch with Rani’s mother and her children. Yet, the simple process of having the mother meet her child took a complex turn, only due to the relative's perception and fear towards prisons and detainees. 

Rani also has a three-year-old daughter named Shreya*, who was born inside the prison in 2020. When Rani was sent to prison in 2019, she was one month pregnant.

The birth certificate riddle  

In 2022, when Reena and her team were following up on Shreya’s birth certificate documentation, they discovered that she does not have one. “We looked for Shreya’s documents for two years, but there was no hospital record,” Jaiswal said.

Usually, for children born outside the jail, 10B certificate should be submitted to the corporation for getting their birth certificates. For those born inside the prison, a birth certificate is issued by the hospital. 

A day after Shreya was born in the prison, Rani was moved to the Central Hospital, Ulhasnagar. When contacted, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation issued a letter to Prayas, mentioning that no birth record of Shreya was available. As per the new law, the birth certificate must be secured within a year of childbirth. Otherwise, one needs to get it from the tehsildar’s office.

Jaiswal and team met the tehsildar and are now in the process of collecting documents required to issue a birth certificate. The team also met the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation commissioner, who issued the letter to be presented to the Central Hospital. The hospital later sent a letter to Prayas confirming Rani’s admission there and clarified to secure the birth certificate from the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation.

Jaiswal reasoned that all prisoners are taken to the Central Hospital for a general check-up; hence, the hospital must inform the respective ward. However, according to the hospital, since the child was born inside the prison, the associated prison doctor must inform the Kalyan-Dombivli ward.

An identity crisis

While social workers were working to connect Rani with her children, they came across another challenge. In August 2024, when Rani was allowed cash bail, they discovered she did not have any identification proof to show. 

According to Rani, she had submitted the proof (PAN card) to the police station during her arrest. After getting a request letter from her, Jaiswal and the team reached the Taloja Police Station.

“We waited there for two hours, but the police were not that cooperative. They kept giving us reasons,” said Riya Bhaklial, a master’s student at TISS working with Jaiswal. “The police were unaware where the documents were.”

Soni Marandi, another master’s student at TISS working on Rani’s case, suggested that when the accused were produced before the court following their arrest, the judge must be made aware of the document submission to the police station so that police personnel take care of the documents for future use. 

“Judges do not know if the documents are submitted or not, which is why police personnel behave irresponsibly,” Marandi said. “I think the judges must ask what documents have been collected.”

As the biggest challenge in Rani’s case was meeting the condition for bail, Jaiswal and the team met the judge and explained the situation. They stressed that Rani’s family was based at Bhawanipatna, and the DPO of the region had visited their house. 

“Based on this, can bail be proceeded,” Jaiswal had asked the judge, with a promise that they will help secure her identification proof and submit it to the court as per the bail condition.

On getting the judge's approval, the Prayas team requested a report on DPO’s visit to Rani’s house and submitted it to the court.

After getting bail, the Prayas team started planning the next steps to connect Rani with her children. Two weeks after getting bail, on September 5, 2024, Rani was seen waiting patiently at the Panvel court, hoping to seek approval to travel out-of-state to meet her two children. 

Rani explained to the judge the reasons behind her travel. When she fumbled, Jaiswal came to her assistance, after which the judge approved her request on the condition that she would be present for her next court hearing. 

On September 9, Jaiswal and her team accompanied Rani to Odisha, where they met the village head, who played a supportive role in getting all relevant documents to prove Rani’s identity.  

Trial of emotions

Sarika was 11 when Rani was sent to prison. Rani's sister used to beat her, and she was not allowed to complete her education. In no time, she was kicked out of her grandmother's house. However, Ibhaan was treated differently.

During this time, Sarika met a man whom she refers to as chacha. Jaiswal and her team were in touch with chacha, who Jaiswal recalled as someone who took care of Sarika. She was thought to be in safe hands. 

However, that image was shattered when Rani and the Prayas team reached Kesinga Railway Station in Kalahandi in the wee hours of September 10. Sarika was overwhelmed with joy to see her mother after five years, but she refused to take her to the house where she stayed. When Jaiswal insisted, she took them there, only to reveal that she lived in a house with no electricity or a bed.

“My eyes teared up. I felt very mad at the man who was misleading us on Sarika’s condition,” Jaiswal said.

Sarika used to sell vegetables and hand over the money earned to chacha, who provided her with only two meals a day. 

“She (Sarika) never told me this is how she lived,” Rani said. “She never complained.”

Jaiswal mentioned that one of her roles through Prayas was to ensure that the connection between the mother and her children remained strong and positive. Many times, children come under the influence of society and relatives who might feed them wrong information about their mother. 

“With time, children forget their mother. We ensure this does not happen,” Jaiswal said. 

Bakalial said this has happened in Rani’s case. “We found that Sarika had no emotional connection with her mother. Rani had to request her to accompany her to Mumbai.” 

Bakalial stressed that Sarika listened only to chacha, and not her mother. When asked about this, Rani said chacha would misguide Sarika. “He would say that I speak ill of her, and tell her not to go with me (Rani) since there is no clarity on whether my case will be dismissed. He told her that she could end up in jail if she came with me,” Rani detailed. 

After learning from Marandi how beneficial it would be for her, Sarika agreed to accompany her mother to Mumbai.

Rani’s family also includes her mother, who asked her not to come to her village, fearing societal norms. She made it clear that she would meet Rani only after her case was dismissed. Though Rani was in Odisha for a month with her daughter, no one from her maternal family visited her. 

For Rani, the current priority is to fill that emotional gap and ensure a bright future for her children. She has not started working yet, but lives in one of the shelter houses in Mankhurd, Navi Mumbai, with Sarika and Shreya. Her son Ibhaan is in a shelter home in Odisha.

“I just want to thank Reena madam for helping me so much,” Rani kept repeating.

As of July 2025, Rani’s daughter Shreya has received her birth certificate, and Rani’s Aadhaar card is in process.

*Names changed to protect privacy

(Apurva Minchekar is a Maharashtra-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)

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.