India : undertrial prisoners in India equals population of Barbados

Rudal Shah, arrested in 1953, remained in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur jail for 30 years despite being acquitted in 1968.
Boka Thakur, arrested at 16, was jailed and detained without trial for 36 years in Bihar’s Madhubani jail.

Shah and Thakur are just two of the 282,879 undertrials in Indian prisons, according to Prison Statistics 2014 - a number equal to the population of the Caribbean nation of Barbados.

An IndiaSpend analysis of available data reveals the extent of the problem: Between 2010 and 2014, 25 per cent undertrials had been jailed for more than one year. The percentage of undertrials to total prisoners has remained over 65 per cent during this period.

In 2014, seven in 10 prisoners were undertrials, and two in 10 had been detained for more than one year without being convicted.

Undertrials -those detained in prisons during trial, investigation or inquiry - are presumed innocent till proven guilty. But they are often subjected to psychological and physical torture during detention and exposed to prison violence and poor living conditions. Many lose their family ties and, often, their livelihoods.

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