The panel said though the industrial units in Asia’s biggest prison were making profits, only a pittance was being spent towards wages of inmates.
NHRC says inmates are paid paltry wages, while prison mints money on products made by them
NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has alleged financial irregularities in the operations of Tihar Jail. The panel said though the industrial units in Asia’s biggest prison were making profits, only a pittance was being spent towards wages of inmates.
The matter came to light when the commission’s honourary representative, Chaman Lal, visited the jail on October 22 to deliver a lecture on human rights. Some of the inmates informed Lal that while they worked in the jail units for paltry sums ranging from Rs12 to Rs30, the Tihar authorities were minting money. Lal’s submission to the NHRC on the issue has called for a serious need for wage revision.
Taking suo-motu cognisance of the matter, the commission has shot off a letter to director-general (prisons) BK Gupta, directing him to submit an annual statement of incomes and expenditures of jail industries within four weeks. NHRC has also asked Gupta to “indicate clearly the amount paid as wages to inmates and also the number of prisoners who had benefited”.
On an average, nearly 300 inmates are engaged daily in jail industries which include carpentry, weaving, tailoring, chemicals making, baking, confectionery and paper-making. The products of are sold to government departments and in the open market.
Lal also expressed doubt whether the prison authorities were paying a portion of the prisoners’ wages to their family members, according to a Supreme Court directive. Lal is said to have told the commission that though he had personally seen the Supreme Court directive being followed in jails in various states he could not assure the same about Tihar. The allegations came nearly a week after the NHRC’s allegations of serious irregularities in health services being provided to inmates of Tihar Jail.
The commission had submitted to the Delhi high court that the prison, which houses 13,249 inmates as opposed to its maximum capacity of about 6000, “not only lacked adequate health facilities but also faced water shortage, aggravating its poor living conditions”.
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