PUSHED TO THE MARGIN
* 1,330 prisons in the world’s most populous country
* Prison system’s occupancy level is at 131.4 per cent
* Minorities have a disproportionate share of prisoners
MUSLIM officials are now in double digits among the top jail management teams across the states and Union Territories (UTs), according to Mohammed Abdul Mannan’s new book, At the Bottom of the Ladder: State of the Indian Muslims –https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GF1Q9R25 – which quantifies Muslim presence in 150 key organisations, including Union ministries, departments, and other organisations.
By mid-2024, there were 46 Muslims among the 1,560 top officials at central prisons, district jails, sub-jails, and other correctional institutions.
The world’s most populous country has 1,330 prisons, which include central jails, district jails, sub-jails, women’s jails, open jails, borstal schools, and special jails. Out of this, 148 are Central Jails, 428 District Jails, 574 Sub-Jails, 34 Women’s Jails, 91 Open Jails, 10 Borstal Schools (youth detention centres), and 42 Special Jails.
Presently, the total prison population, including the pre-trial detainees, stands at 573,220. The prison system faces challenges due to overcrowding, with an occupancy level of 131.4 percent based on its official capacity of 436,266. The total population in Delhi’s 16 prisons is around 19,500 inmates against the sanctioned capacity of 10,026.
Two prisons in Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail have 400 percent occupancy. The country’s jails are bursting at the seams as the proportion of undertrial inmates has risen to 76 per cent of all prisoners, according to the India Justice Report-2025.
Over half of India’s prisons are overcrowded, with 176 of them housing four times the number of inmates they were sanctioned to hold. Officials reported an increase in the budget allocation for prisons and prisoners by 156 per cent and 192 per cent, respectively, in the past decade. The per-day expenditure on a prisoner has increased from Rs 62 to Rs 121, a rise of 96 per cent.
According to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Prison Conditions, Infrastructure and Reforms, “overcrowded prisons have serious consequences for both prisoners and the criminal justice system.” The national average occupancy rate in prisons across India is 130 percent. Six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, account for more than half of the total prisoner population.
Four out of these six states have an occupancy rate higher than the national average. About borstal schools, the panel noted that not all states and UTs have such facilities. Only eight states, including Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand, have them.
The committee recommended allowing babies born in prison to stay with their mothers till the age of 12. Currently, children born in prison can stay with their mothers till the age of six. The panel noted a high percentage of vacancies in all categories of jail staff.
“Staff shortage has become the most neglected part of the prison administration, making prison management difficult.” It also observed a low representation of women in prison-related jobs, and recommended filling all vacant posts with no post remaining vacant for more than three months.
It was observed that over 70 per cent of the prisoners are undertrials, and that prison administrations were spending more money on keeping undertrials inside jails than the bail money required for their release. The panel recommended separate infrastructure facilities, such as separate wards, for transgender prisoners.
In February 2024, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court, taking suo motu cognisance of the inhuman conditions in prisons, found the overcrowding “stark” and “quite worrying” that needs to be addressed as a top priority. It directed states and UTs to set up committees in each district to prepare a roadmap on the number of jails needed to cater to the prison population for the next 50 years.
On average, in most prisons, the occupancy is nearly 30 per cent over the sanctioned limit, but could go as high as 400 per cent. In 2009, the country’s 1,374 prisons had a sanctioned capacity of 307,052, but had 376,969 inmates. Now, according to a report, India has 1,330 prisons with a capacity to hold 430,000, but they are holding more than 500,000 inmates. Between 2009 and 2022, the total available capacity for inmates increased by 42 per cent, but the inmate population increased by 52 per cent.
It turns out that convicts, or persons found guilty of crimes, comprise only 23 percent of the total prison population, as of December 2022. Among the 115 central jails, more than half have occupancy between 100 and 200 per cent. Out of the 353 district jails, 96 have more than 200 per cent occupancy.
Andhra Pradesh, which has 103 prisons including a Central Jail, has 101 officials of whom five are Muslims. Arunachala Pradesh, which has nine jails, has nine officials without a Muslim. Assam’s 31 jails have five Muslims among 35 officials. Bihar, with 62 jails including eight central prisons, has four Muslims among 79 officials. Chhattisgarh, having 33 jails including five central prisons, has no Muslim among 33 officials, as is the case with Goa and Gujarat, with six and 29 officials, respectively.
Goa has a sole central prison, while Gujarat has 32 jails, including four central prisons. Haryana, which has 21 prisons including three central jails, has 25 officials without a Muslim. In 2024, Mohammed Akil, an IPS officer, served as the Director General of Prisons. Himachal Pradesh, which has 15 prisons including two central facilities, has 19 officials without a single Muslim. Jharkhand, having 33 prisons including seven central prisons, has one Muslim among 37 officials – Hamid Akhtar, an AIG in Jail Inspectorate.
Karnataka, home to 56 prisons including eight central jails, has 61 officials, of whom two are Muslims – M Imam Sab, and Abdul Shakkur, both Superintendents of Prisons. Six are Muslims among 65 officials in Kerala, which has 58 prisons, including four central facilities. All of them are Superintendents of Prisons. Madhya Pradesh, with 134 prisons including 11 central jails, has two Muslims among 108 officials. Both are Assistant Jail Superintendents – Mohammed Fahim Khan and Rafi Hussain Khan.
There are no Muslims among the 99 officials in Maharashtra, which has 60 prisons, including nine central jails. None of the four officials in Manipur is a Muslim. The state has four jails, including two central jails. Meghalaya, which has five prisons and no central jail, has no Muslims among its seven officials, as is the case with Mizoram’s 22 officials. The state has 10 jails, including a central facility. Nagaland, which has 12 jails including one central prison, has also no Muslim among its 15 officials.
Odisha, home to 127 jails including five central prisons, has no Muslims among 107 officials, as is the case with Punjab, which has 82 officials for 27 jails, including 11 central jails. Rajasthan, which has 157 jails including nine central jails, has two Muslims among 113 officials – Farzana Banu, Warder at Central Jail in Kota, and Mahboob Ali, Deputy Jailer at Sub-Jail of Bhinmal. There are no Muslims among the three officials in Sikkim, which has two jails, including a central jail.
Tamil Nadu, home to 135 prisons including nine central jails, has three Muslims among 149 officials – A S Abdul Rahman, Additional Superintendent of Prison at Central Prison in Vellore, Syed Hamid, Assistant Jailor at Dharmapuri, and Meer Hussain, Assistant Jailor. Telangana has one Muslim among 47 officials at its jails, which includes four central prisons – Mohammed Yousuf, an Administrative Officer at Jail Bhavan. Tripura, which has 13 correctional facilities, including one central prison, has 29 officials without a Muslim.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has 63 facilities, including seven central prisons. One of 114 officials is a Muslim, Mohammed Akram Khan, a Superintendent of Jail at the District Jail in Fatehpur. Uttarakhand, with 63 facilities including seven central prisons, has no Muslims among 14 officials. One is a Muslim among 73 officials in West Bengal, which has 63 prisons, including eight central prisons – Mushtaque Ahmed, Chief Controller of Suri District Correction Home in Birbhum.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which has four facilities, including one district jail, has eight officials, including two Muslims – Mohammed Irshad Haider at District Prison in South Andaman, and Mohammed Iqbal, jailor. Chandigarh, which has one jail, has two officials without a Muslim, as is the case with Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu’s three officials. Delhi, which has 16 jails including the Tihar, India’s largest facility, has no Muslims among 29 officials.
Jammu and Kashmir, with 16 facilities including two central jails, has one Muslim staff member at the office of one of the five senior officials – Javed Ahmed Khan, Technical Officer to DG Prisons. Seven are Muslims among 16 officials at other prisons. Ladakh’s District Prison has no Muslim among its two officials, as is the case with four officials at Lakshadweep’s four sub-jails, or Puducherry’s six officials at four jails, including one central jail.
Indian jails host four types of prisoners — convicts (persons found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court), undertrials (currently on trial in a court of law), detenues (persons held lawfully in custody), and those who do not belong to any of these three categories and who comprise a small share of the total number of prisoners. According to Hindustan Times, in 2021, over 30 per cent of all detainees were Muslims.
Notably, in Assam, 61 per cent of the convicts and 49 per cent of undertrials were Muslims. The share of Muslim detainees has been notably disproportionate to the population in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Jammu & Kashmir. As per The Hindu, about 19.1 per cent of inmates across India’s jails were Muslims in 2020. Out of a total of 488,511 prisoners, 19.1 per cent or 93,774 were Muslims. A combination of factors has kept it that way for years – lack of opportunity, poor education, police prejudices leading to false cases, low representation of Muslims in the police force, and inadequate or absent legal aid.
A record 19.5 per cent of all undertrials and 17.4 per cent of all convicts in jails were Muslims. More than 30 per cent of detainees and 57.2 per cent of other prisoners were Muslims. Assam had the highest percentage of Muslim undertrials (52.3) and convicts (47), followed by West Bengal (33 per cent convicts and 43.5 per cent undertrials).
In Haryana, (100 per cent) of the detenus were Muslims in 2020, followed by Jammu and Kashmir with 96.4 per cent and Telangana with 49.5 per cent. According to criminologists at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the overrepresentation of Muslims in prisons has highlighted two issues: the community’s overall socio-economic conditions and the lack of opportunities for them to access education, health, and employment.
Other marginalised communities were overrepresented in prisons, according to a report, with 20.7 per cent of prisoners belonging to Scheduled Castes and 11.2 per cent belonging to Scheduled Tribes. A 2011 study on the socio-economic profile and rehabilitation needs of Muslim prisoners in Maharashtra found that the majority were accused of ‘body offences’, including murder, attempted murder, and assault.
These accounted for 52.8 per cent of prisoners. This was followed by property-related offences that accounted for 26.3 per cent of those surveyed. These offences were under IPC Sections 379 to 402 (theft, extortion, dacoity, etc), Sections 403 to 440 (misappropriation of property, cheating, the commission of mischief, etc), and Sections 447 to 462 (criminal trespass, lurking, and offences committed by a person entrusted with custody).
A small percentage (2.7) were charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999; the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), 1987, and the Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923. The study found the majority of Muslim prisoners (65.5 per cent) were in the 18‐30 years age group, followed by 26.3 per cent in the 31-40 years age group. In Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most populous state, 20 per cent of convicts, 28.3 per cent of undertrials, and 50 per cent of detenus were Muslims in 2020.
A 2019 study by Common Cause, along with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), about policing in India, found that “one in two police personnel” felt Muslims were “naturally prone” towards committing crimes. According to the report, 14 per cent of police felt Muslims were “very much” naturally prone to committing crimes, while 36 per cent felt Muslims were “somewhat” naturally prone to committing crimes.
Studies noted: “From some narratives, it emerged that the criminal background of the respondents followed them even when they wanted to get out of crime. Such persons may find themselves arrested on suspicion, implicated in false cases “to ‘solve’ pending cases,” or held on preventive detention charges. There was no data available on what percentage of Muslims may have been arrested or tried on account of such biases.”
In 2013, Muslims accounted for 19.6 per cent of inmates in Indian prisons. The report of 2015 was not available on the NCRB website. In 2016, there were 18 per cent Muslim prisoners, growing to 19 per cent in 2017, marginally falling to 18.2 per cent in 2018, and remaining at 18.2 per cent in 2019. In the years 2010, 2011, and 2012, the percentage of Muslims among prisoners hovered around 20 per cent.
Laws such as UAPA and MCOCA carry the death penalty. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not provide data on Muslim prisoners sentenced to death. However, a 2016 report by the National Law University (NLU) in Delhi threw considerable light on members of minority groups on death row. The report provided data on Muslims given the death penalty in some states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, and Kerala.
Religious minorities comprised a disproportionate share of prisoners sentenced to death in these states. In Gujarat, of 19 prisoners sentenced to death, 15 were Muslims (79 per cent); in Kerala, among 15 sentenced to death, five were Muslims and four were Christians (60 per cent were religious minorities). Of 45 prisoners sentenced to death in Karnataka, 10 were Muslims and four were Christians (31.8 per cent were religious minorities).
According to Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde, a 19 per cent representation against a 14 per cent population (Muslims) reflected “the reality that the application of criminal law is not fully equal”. A study found that a large percentage (61.8) of Muslim prisoners had only completed primary school education level. Entirely illiterate prisoners accounted for another 31.3 per cent of Maharashtra prisoners surveyed.
Similarly, the majority were involved in low-paying jobs and unskilled work — 48 per cent had no skills, mainly the respondents with low educational status and illiterates. About 31.9 per cent had technical skills such as carpentry and mechanical skills, or worked as air-conditioner repair mechanics, refrigerator repair technicians, metal fabricators, fitters, tailors, machine operators, drivers, welders, plumbers, and painters.
About 41 per cent had a single earning member in the family, and 26.5 per cent had no other earning member besides themselves, implying that these families had no income-earning member after their arrests. A report in January 2020 revealed that two-thirds of prisoners in Indian jails were Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and 19 per cent were Muslims.
In November 2016, a News Guard report reported that in Maharashtra, roughly every 10th person is Muslim, but almost every third inmate is a Muslim in its prisons. Muslims make up 15.8 per cent of all convicts and 20.9 per cent of all undertrials in jails across the country. This is higher than their share of the country’s population. In several states, this gap is far wider.
According to data on prisons by the NCRB, in 2015, in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the percentage of Muslims in the incarcerated population was almost thrice the percentage of Muslims in the overall population. Muslims made up 30 per cent of all undertrials in the state. The gap widened in 2015 from what it had been a year earlier — in 2014, Muslim undertrials made up 26 per cent of all undertrials in Maharashtra.
A study in October 2022 revealed that the average number of cases registered under the UAPA per year by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime during its second term in power from 2009 till 2014 stood at 13. In contrast, during the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, from May 2014 onwards, the average number of cases registered per year was 34.
A People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) report says close to 97.2 per cent of the 8,371 persons arrested between 2015 and 2020 (8,136 persons) were acquitted at the end of trials in the UAPA courts. Such high acquittal rates highlight the fact that most of the prosecutions are devoid of merit and did not warrant initiation of any prosecution in the first place, much less under the UAPA. A report in November 2021 has startling disclosures.
In seven years, 10,552 Indians have been arrested under UAPA – but only 253 convicted. The number of pending cases under the counter-terror law has been rising in the last seven years. Between 2014 and 2020, 10,552 people were arrested, and 253 were convicted under the UAPA. This means, on average, 1,507 people were nabbed each year, and an average of 36 people were convicted.
To read and obtain more data, please visit:
At the Bottom of the Ladder: State of the Indian Muslims – https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GF1Q9R25
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