India: parliamentary panel finds inhuman condition inside Mumbai’s Byculla jail

A 20-member team of women MPs which visited Byculla jail last month to study the conditions inside the prison, found inhuman treatment of women prisoners.

Mumbai’s Byculla jail which hit the headlines in June following a riot by inmates, including by former media entrepreneur Indrani Mukerjea, is a hellhole with pathetic living conditions and rampant abuse of rights of women prisoners.

A team of 20 MPs, all members of the Parliamentary standing committee on Empowerment of Women has found that beatings by jail staff at the slightest provocation, disallowing meetings with family members, ants in oil, stones in rice and insects in dal, unhygienic toilets, bad quality soap and sanitary napkins are among some of the glaring instances of rights violation that women inmates inside the jail face.

The women MPs led by BJP MP from Assam, Bijoya Chakravarty, chairperson of the Committee on Empowerment of Women, had visited Byculla jail last month to study the conditions inside the prison, following the death of a murder convict in the facility.

Thirty-eight -year-old convict Manjula Shetye died after she was brutally beaten up by jail staffers when she complained about some food items missing from the morning ration. Six women jail staffers have been booked for the murder. Shetye’s death had triggered violent protests leading to rioting by the inmates, including former media enterpreneur Indrani Mukerjea who is accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora.

Sources said the women MPs who visited the Byculla jail have requested that the investigation in the prisoner’s death be handed over to the CBI as there is an attempt to cover up the incident.

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