DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

Seminar paper

Child law

Rough draft on Topic: - why should I be punished? - Children

of imprisoned mothers

Submitted To: - Submitted By:-

Ms kirti singh Lokesh Nigam

Faculty Roll Number – 74

Child Law VII Semester

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 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this seminar paper on child law would be to study the interface between various
laws across india protecting the rights of imprisoned mothers and to assess their synergetic role
in protecting the female prisoners and their rights of the imprisoned mothers.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
1. Are the mothers in prisons aware of the rights available to them in respect to their
children below 6 years?

2. Can the mothers and children in prisons exercise their rights that they are legitimately
entitled to?

3. Is the prison the right place for the development of their children? If not what is the
alternative available to them?

4. Does a child’s need to be with his mother end after 6 years of age? What is the better
alternative that can be provided to them for their acceptance into mainstream life?

5. Can protection be provided to children under any other provisions of Indian law?

HYPOTHESIS

The project will focus on studying the structure and the functions of the various laws protecting
the female prisoners and would study the synergetic bonding arising for the female prisoners.
The project will also drawbacks and the failures of the interplaying laws in protecting and
catering to convenience of the prisoners. The project will in the end suggest measures for more
effective implementation for the impsioned mothers in india.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research hs been modeled on the lines of the doctrinal research whereby the author has relied
upon bare acts of the laws containing provisions for child laws, reports of various committees on
child laws, case laws decided by supreme court and the others subordinate courts, authoritative
text books, research papers, and newspaper reporting. Assistance has also been taken of various
online resources for proper assessment of the imprisoned mothers in the country.

BROAD OBJECTIVES.
1. The objective of this study is to bring to the notice of the society at large, the plight of
children of imprisoned women. It shall be done by analyzing the situation with regard to
the facilities available in prisons.

2. It is an effort towards empowering such children because besides being one of the very
underprivileged sections of the society, they suffer at the hands of the society. By
obtaining a brief over-view of the steps taken by the State to protect these children, we
shall be able to find the loopholes.

3. They are victims of poverty and illiteracy because they are homeless and consequently
get trapped in the vicious cycle of unemployment and crime. The study aims at analyzing
the alternatives available to the children in respect of their social circumstances.

4. Analyzing the psychological impact of such events on the mind of a growing child and in
turn its reflection on the child’s behaviour. It shall be done obtaining reactions from the
mothers to get a better understanding of their attitude towards the situation and how their
children react to these situations especially the stigma attached to imprisonment.

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 RESEARCH QUESTION
1) Are the mothers in prisons aware of the rights available to them in respect to their
children below 6 years?

2) Can the mothers and children in prisons exercise their rights that they are legitimately
entitled to?

3) Is the prison the right place for the development of their children? If not what is the
alternative available to them?

4) Does a child’s need to be with his mother end after 6 years of age? What is the better
alternative that can be provided to them for their acceptance into mainstream life?

5. Can protection be provided to children under any other provisions of Indian law?

INTRODUCTION

Crime is the outcome of a diseased mind and jail must have an environment of hospital for
treatment and care- Mahatma Gandhi

Punishment for a crime is one of the most integral parts of the Indian legal system. The penal
system in our country emphasizes on imprisonment for most serious crimes. Sometimes the
criminal is the bread-earning man of a family, sometimes a juvenile, and at times a woman, even
a mother.

The instances of mothers in prison have increased manifold in the past few decades and the
maximum impact of this is felt by those children whose mothers are spending their term in
prison. They are kept away from their mothers, probably for their own benefit, as these women
are guilty of physically or emotionally abusive behavior.

The question that arises here is whether the society can legitimately punish these women without
ruining the lives of their children. According to recent surveys, one out of every two such
children with an incarcerated mother will commit a crime before 18 years of age. Attention needs
to be given on the trauma that these kids undergo. However the scenario is worse when these

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incarcerated women are expectant mothers. Usually in such cases, the women are pregnant when
they arrive at the prisons.

However the problem of parenting, often, only begins with child birth. The harsh treatment of
pregnant inmates, the shackling during labor and malnourishment of the expectant mothers are
just the tip of the ice-berg. Since in most Indian prisons, no proper health and medical facilities
are available, these women are subject to the unhealthiest and most undesirable pre-natal
conditions. This directly influences the health of the conceived child and results in some of the
most appalling, human rights violation cases the child suffers even before his birth.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERISATION
1) INTRODUCTION
2) RIGHTS OF CHILDREN BORN TO INCARCERATED MOTHERS
3) CLIENTELE
4) THE PRISON VISIT
5) OBSERVATION
6) LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION.
7) CONCLUSION
8) BIBLIOGRAPHY.

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 SOURCES.

Statutes & Reports:

1. All India Committee on Jail Reforms, 1980 (Rtd Mr. Justice A.N. Mulla)
2. Amnesty International “Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners”, 1955
3. Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003
4. Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005
5. Declaration of Child Rights 1959
6. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000
7. Malimath Committee Report, 2003
8. Prisoners Act 1900
9. UNCRC
10. UP Jail Manual
11. WB Jail Code

Surveys & Statistics:

1. Bureau of Police Research & Development-Prisons and Law in India

2. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative- Facts & Figures
3. Home Office Research and Statistics, 1994
4. Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991
5. UP Prison Statistics 2008

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Articles:

1. Amnesty International (2000) Pregnant and Imprisoned in the US, Sara A. Rodriguez
2. Babies Born to Incarcerated Mothers- Anne Hemmet Stern, 2004
3. Bloom B Steinhast, D (1993) Why Punish children? A Reappraisal of the children of
Incarcerated mothers in America. San Francisco,LA : National Council on Crime and
Delinquency
4. Prisons in UP, Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Development,
Planning Commission Report, 2004
5. Voice of a Child, The Howard League for Prison Reforms
6. What About Me? Children with Incarcerated Parents, Michigan State University, March
2005

Books Referred:

1. Women and Punishment- The struggle for Justice- Pat Carlen

2. The Effects of Imprisonment- Alison Liebling and Shadd Maruna
3. Female Offenders- Critical Perspectives and Effective Interventions- Ruth T. Zapulin
4. Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency, 2nd ed, James C. Howell
5. Criminals in the Making- Criminality Across the life Course, John Paul Wright, Stephen
G. Tibbets
6. The Politics of Imprisonment- How the Democratic Process shapes the way America
punishes Offenders, Vanessa Barker
7. Corrections- Mary Stohr, Anthony Walsh
8. Prisoners and the Law- Tottel Publishing, 3rd ed, Vicky King, Hamish Arnott
9. When Prisoners Come Home- Parole and Prisoner Reentry, Joan Petersila
10. Prisons- Today and Tomorrow, Joycetyn M. Pollock