Incarcerated Women Face Graver Prejudices, Stigma And Discrimination, Which Makes Their Rehabilitation Tough: CJI NV Ramana

Speaking at the 32nd Central Authority Meeting of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), Justice NV Ramana, Chief Justice of India & Patron-in-Chief, NALSA observed that there was a need to formulate programmes & services to reintegrate women prisoners into the society.

While delivering the keynote address to the newly appointed members of the Central Authority of NALSA, Justice Ramana observed that,

"Often incarcerated women have to face, graver prejudices, stigma and discrimination, which makes their rehabilitation a tough challenge."

He added that, "as a welfare state, we are obligated to provide women prisoners with programs and services that enable them to effectively reintegrate into the society, on an equal basis with men."

Expressing his pleasure on seeing the report on rehabilitation of women prisoners, the CJI suggested certain measures for reintegration of the women prisoners into the society such as, 'non-discriminatory access to education and vocational training, dignified and remunerated work'.

CJI Ramana also congratulated the legal services authorities for disposing more than 29.5 lakh cases across 33 States & UTs of the country during the recently organized Lok Adalat on September 11.

Justice U.U. Lalit, Executive Chairman, NALSA co-chaired the said meeting.

Justice Lalit highlighted the issue of overcrowding of prisons and stressed upon the need to take immediate steps in such direction.

He also pointed that since schools were shut down due to the pandemic, children living in juvenile homes, observational homes and children homes were in unimaginable situation, wherein only one video monitor was not sufficient to impart basic education to children of different age groups.

Stressing upon the need to utilise the talent and services of law students, Justice Lalit added that the law students could bridge the gap and can reach grassroot level of the society by adopting three or four talukas of each district across the country.

The main agenda was consideration of report of the committee to look into the optimum use of technology and Artificial Intelligence; consideration of the Committee report on rehabilitation of women prisoners; implementation and way forward for NALSA's vision and mission statement 2021-22; reconstitution of the Committee to look into the issue of revising the recommended fee structure of panel lawyers and consideration of the implementation report of Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADCS), a unique system based on public defender system of United States.

The meeting was attended by all the members including the Chief Justice of India; Executive Chairman, NALSA; Chief Justice of Orissa High Court; Executive Chairpersons of Assam, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka SLSA; Secretary, Department of Justice; Chairman of BCI, Senior Advocates Siddharth Luthra, Meenakshi Arora & KV Vishwanathan; renowned social workers Dr Beena Chaintalapuri and Priti Pravin Patkar and Member Secretary, NALSA.