SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIAN PRISONS: A STUDY

Abstract

The Constitution of India ensures women's freedom, and numerous laws have been adopted to protect and empower women. Articles 21 and 22 of the Indian constitution preserve and safeguard the rights of convicts, under trial, and criminals. The present paper aims to explore various forms of protections provided to inmates, with a special focus on safeguards for female offenders and also to critically analyse the various case studies related to the sexual harassment of women in prisons. Women be it anywhere are prone to the sexual harassment and it is no strange that women in prison, being in a small number is an easy prey for the personals in authority to harass them mentally as well as physically. Custodial Rape and sexual violence inside the prison is the most ignored and unfortunately the most under-rated topic that is rarely been discussed. But we become ignorant when such cases are reported by the prisoners. Prisoners are often subjected to rape and other sexual assaults and these acts are generally justified by, not only the custodial staff but also by the other inmates, on the ground that the criminal had been made to suffer the same way as he had made the victim suffer because after allthey are considered to be the demons and hence they should be subjected to ill-treatments and no sympathy should be shown towards them. Due to the apathetic attitude of the police and other justice machineries, the prison rape cases and the sexual
assault cases fail to come into the limelight. The following research paper intents to study about the cases of sexual harassment in prison and includes various recommendations proposed by the author.