Imprisoned women: A gender striving behind the prison gates Anwer Samra1, Dr. Bhartiya A.K.2 1Research Scholar Department of Social Work, University of Lucknow, Email: samrashadow@gmail.com 2Associate Professor Department of Social Work, University of Lucknow Online published on 24 August, 2018. Abstract The Constitution of India guarantees equality to men and women and the law is supposedly equal for every citizen, but the implementation is far from such equality. Though various laws have been enacted to protect and empower women, the life of majority of women still remains a hard struggle. Women under custody are very much vulnerable in male-centric model of prison system especially in the common jails where men and women both are lodged. Women continue to constitute a very small proportion of the general prison population worldwide as well as in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau's prison statistics, women form 4.1% of the total prisoners. As many as 17, 681 women were in prison at the end of 2014 as per the statistical data. Of these, only 17% women are lodged in prisons for women and other are in district or central jails. The poor conditions of Indian jails and the inadequacy of basic facilities that are dire need of any woman, in addition to sexual abuse, pose a difficult adjustment to a correctional environment and many of the times worsen the overall wellbeing of women prisoners. Again, women need gender precise facilities for healthcare, to help them in childbirth and child care, to receive counseling to guard against the possibility of rape and sexual assault. The needs of women held in detention have received little attention and continue to be neglected by health systems and prison authorities. This paper is an attempt to analyze the effect that gender biasness has on incarcerated women. Further, an attempt is made to provide suggestions and share ideas in which these issues could be addressed better for effective assistance by the legislation and the jail authorities. Top Keywords Gender biasness, incarcerated women, correctional environment, gender biasness. Top |