Asia’s largest prison complex, Tihar, is making an unexpected yet crucial effort to provide care for the children of female inmates, offering facilities from creches to immunization centers as these children’s early years take shape within its walls.”
At present, the high-security prison is home to over 20,000 inmates, including 584 women—some awaiting trial and others convicts.
These women serve their sentences in the confines of Tihar’s Central Jail number 6. Another 162 female inmates are lodged in Mandoli Jail. There are 21 children, all under the age of six, who are residing at the Tihar women’s jail, while 10 children are at the Mandoli jail with their mothers.
“Gone are the days when pregnant inmates would give birth inside the jail premises,” a senior Tihar Prison official told PTI, adding that they are shifted to designated hospitals for delivery.
The official added that now fellow inmates take care of pregnant women, and the prison complex has better food facilities and frequent health check-up camps. According to the jail manual, the facility to deliver a child outside the prison shall be denied only when there is a high security risk for a particular prisoner. In order to ensure that the formative years of the children are fruitful, some NGOs are running a programme inside the Tihar Jail to educate children between one-and-a-half and six years of age. India Vision Foundation (IVF) is running a programme called Early Childhood Care and Development, according to jail officials. From vaccination to creche facilities, infants get everything inside the jail.” To make sure that the infants receive proper care and treatment, prison authorities are always on alert.
