Life Inside Indian Prisons

Indian prisons are providing better facilities, and organising vocational training programmes and leisure activities for inmates. But, is it the whole story?

- Anjuly Mathai

Ward 1 of Jail 4 in Tihar, Delhi, could have been the play area of a busy housing colony in the evening. Except that these are not children back from school. They are prisoners greedily gulping the free air, before they are herded back into the barracks.

There are eight barracks in the ward that house 500 inmates. They are arranged on three sides of a rectangular courtyard. Near the ward is a small stone mandir, strewn with stamped and flattened petals. In the middle of the courtyard is a raised pavilion. When we walk in, led by the superintendent of the prison Rajesh Chauhan, three plastic chairs are immediately placed on the pavilion. I see inmates touching Chauhan’s feet for blessings. The others file obediently into the courtyard and squat down, their dirty white shirts flapping in the wind.

“Let’s have some entertainment,” says Chauhan. “What shall it be? Some singing, perhaps?”

There is a murmuring among the prisoners, and then, a man comes up on the pavilion and renders a Hindi song in a wavering voice.

I am struck by the air of servility among the prisoners. As Chauhan passes by, there is an almost pleading look in their eyes, as though craving a nod of acknowledgment or a word of appreciation. I notice this at the art school of the jail, too, which was inaugurated in August last year. A line of prisoners is sitting outside the school drawing charcoal portraits. When we pass them, they excitedly wave their books at us, inviting us to take a look at the drawings.