The Centre announced on Friday that it has decided to launch a special scheme called ‘Support for Poor Prisoners’ to provide financial support to poor people languishing in jails who are unable to afford the penalty or the bail amount.
“It envisages the provision of required financial support to poor persons who are in prison and are unable to afford the penalty or the bail amount,” the Home Ministry said in an official release, adding that this will enable poor prisoners, the majority of whom belong to socially disadvantaged or marginalised groups with lower education and income levels, to get out of prison.
The broad contours of the scheme have been finalised in consultation with concerned stakeholders, under which the Centre will provide financial support to states in order to extend relief to those poor prisoners who are unable to avail bail or get released from prisons due to non-payment of fines on account of financial constraints.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has been sharing important guidelines with state governments through various advisories issued from time to time. MHA has also been providing financial support to the state governments for enhancing and modernizing the security infrastructure in prisons.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been taking various steps to address the issue of undertrials in prisons from time to time,” the ministry’s statement said, and further added that these include the insertion of Section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the insertion of a new chapter XXIA, ‘Plea Bargaining, in the CrPC, etc. Free legal aid is being provided to poor prisoners through the Legal Services Authority at various levels.