Maximum undertrials faced by Muslims, Tribal & Dalits
Muslims, Tribal & Dalits are together accounted for altogether 39 per cent of India’s population, thus their share among the undertrials is disproportionate to their population.
According to the 2011 Census, Muslims make up to 14.2 per cent, Scheduled Castes (SC) 16.6 per cent and Scheduled Tribes (ST) 8.6 per cent of India’s population.
Besides, these three communities have a lower representation among the convicts as compared to undertrials. Together, they account for almost 50.4 per cent of all convicts.
Among Muslims, the community’s share of convicts is about 15.8 per cent, slightly above their representation in the population, but their share among undertrials — at 20.9 per cent — is far higher.
Whereas, SCs account for 21.6 per cent of the undertrials and 20.9 per cent of convicts, while STs make up 12.4 per cent of undertrials and 13.7 per cent of convicts.
Out of 2,82,076 undertrials that is lodged in various jails in the country, a total of 80,528 undertrials are illiterate (28.5 per cent) and 1,19,082 have education levels below Class 10 (42.2 per cent).
NCRB: Graph
Moreover, the data shows that most of the undertrials have to spend over three months in the jail before they can secure bail — close to 65 per cent spend between three months and five years.
While compared to the data of 2014, the NCRB report states that the most significant increase in convictions was in rape cases — a jump of over 11.6 per cent as against 1.5 per cent in the murder cases and 2 per cent in overall convictions. Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of rape convicts at 19.6 per cent.
The number of the undertrial prisoners also saw a marginal dip of about 0.3 per cent when further compared to 2014.
According to the data, while capacity has increased over the years, jails continue to remain overcrowded with an occupancy rate of over 114 (as against a capacity of 100).
