Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, May 23: To facilitate female prisoners and their children, the State government Saturday amended the manual for the superintendence and management of jails in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a notification issued by the Home Department, a child with its mother is not a prisoner and is entitled to food, shelter, medical care, clothing, education and recreational facilities as a matter of right.
Before sending a woman, who is pregnant to jail, it shall be ensured that the jail in question has the maximum basic facilities for child delivery as well as for providing prenatal and postnatal care for mother and the child, the notification states. “In such cases, the facilities of District Government Hospital must be availed.”
According to the notification remedies would be made available to pregnant female prisoner to have delivery outside the prison and where birth takes place in prison, only the name of the locality shall be recorded with the birth registration office.
Following the amendment, a female prisoner would be allowed to keep her child till it attains the age of six years.
“Thereafter, the child would be handed over to suitable surrogate as per the wishes of the mother or shall be sent to suitable institution run by the Social Welfare Department. The children admitted outside the jail shall be allowed to meet their mother in the jail once a week,” the notification states. “The child would be given proper education and recreation opportunities and kept in a crèche or nursery, which would be preferably run outside the main prison premises. Every child who is allowed to remain with his or her mother in the jail would be provided the facility of crèche or nursery and visitation by relatives and NGOs.”
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(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)