Status of Women Prisoners in India

There are 6, 60, 000 women prisoners in the world and 6.5 percent of the world's prisoners are women. There the steady increase among women in prisons from 5.3 in 2000 to 6.5 in 2013 globally. In India, there are 17, 681 women prisoners as per National Crime Records Bureau 2014 reports. Life of the criminals is awful in prisons. Specifically, in the case of women criminals, it is very horrendous. Women prisoners are treated differently on the grounds of their criminal activities. The behavior of women prisoners differed biologically and socially. There is a significant challenge for prison authorities to handle the issues of women inmates. The present paper investigates the challenges faced by women prisoners inside the prisons and after their release from prisoners. It also tries to throw light on the Indian penal laws pertaining to rights of the women inmates.