{"id":30385,"date":"2024-10-04T20:11:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T14:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=30385"},"modified":"2024-10-04T20:11:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T14:41:48","slug":"caste-bias-and-segregation-in-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-10-2024\/caste-bias-and-segregation-in-prisons","title":{"rendered":"Caste Bias and Segregation in Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court declared that <strong>caste-based discrimination of prisoners <\/strong>oppressive to<strong> fundamental human dignity and personality.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The SC had found that <strong>prison manuals in more than 10 States<\/strong>, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, contained <strong>provisions which sanction discrimination <\/strong>and forced labour in prisons on the grounds of caste.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The existing prejudices in prison rules are<\/strong> with respect to division of manual labour, segregation of barracks and provisions that discriminate against prisoners belonging to denotified tribes and habitual offenders.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Menial jobs<\/strong> in jails are not allotted to prisoners, who belong to a specific caste that is not accustomed to them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The separation of Thevars, Nadars, and Pallars in different sections of the Palayamkottai Central Jail in Tamil Nadu was one such instance of caste-based segregation of barracks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Even the Union government\u2019s Modern Prison Manual of 2016 and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act of 2023 variously <strong>rate \u201chabitual offenders\u201d<\/strong> who are mostly members of denotified tribes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These laws assign <strong>kitchen duties and cooking in prisons<\/strong> on a caste and religious basis. They continue to allow caste-based privileges in prisons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Highlights of the Judgement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SC referred to<strong> Article 15(1)<\/strong> of the Constitution which enshrines the <strong>fundamental right against discrimination.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"e4e4e4\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"628\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/removing-bias-jpg.webp\" alt=\"removing bias\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-30398\" style=\"--dominant-color: #e4e4e4; width:406px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/removing-bias-jpg.webp 628w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/removing-bias-300x222.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SC mentioned that if the state itself discriminates against a citizen, then it is <strong>discrimination of the highest form.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SC held that discrimination among prisoners and distribution of work on the basis of caste <strong>amounted to untouchability<\/strong>, which is forbidden under <strong>Article 17 of the Constitution.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Degrading labour and oppressive practices violate the <strong>right against forced labour under Article 23 of the Constitution.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prison manuals, by treating members of the denotified and wandering tribes as \u201cborn criminals\u201d and habitual offenders, re-affirm <strong>colonial caste-based discrimination.&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The court declared all loose references, not statutorily backed, to \u2018habitual offenders\u2019 in prison manuals as <strong>unconstitutional<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also ordered the<strong> district legal services authority<\/strong> and the <strong>board of visitors <\/strong>formed under the central model prison manual to <strong>jointly conduct regular inspections<\/strong> to identify discriminatory practices prevailing in jails.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/segregation-of-work-in-prisons-on-the-basis-of-caste-unconstitutional-supreme-court\/article68712436.ece#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20on%20Thursday,fundamental%20human%20dignity%20and%20personality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court declared that caste-based discrimination of prisoners oppressive to fundamental human dignity and personality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30399,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30385\/revisions\/30399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}