From creche to immunisation centres, Tihar Jail attempts give better services to female prisoners' children

With creche facilities to immunisation centres, Asia's largest prison complex, Tihar, is trying to play an unexpected but crucial role in providing care to the children of female inmates whose early years take shape within its walls.

At present, the high security prison is home to over 20,000 inmates, including 584 women – some awaiting trial and others convicts.

These women serve their sentences in the confines of Tihar's Central Jail number 6. Another 162 female inmates are lodged in Mandoli Jail.

There are 21 children, all under age six, who are residing at the Tihar women's jail while 10 children are at the Mandoli Jail with their mothers.

"Gone are the days when pregnant inmates would give birth inside the jail premises,” a senior Tihar Prison official told PTI, adding that they are shifted to designated hospitals for delivery.

The official added that now fellow inmates take care of pregnant women and the prison complex has better food facilities, and frequent health check-up camps.

According to the jail manual, the facility to deliver a child outside the prison shall be denied only when there is a high security risk for a particular prisoner.

In order to ensure that the formative years of the children are fruitful, some NGOs are running a programme inside the Tihar Jail to educate children between one-and-a-half and six years of age.

India Vision Foundation (IVF) is running a programme called Early Childhood Care and Development, according to jail officials.

From vaccination, to creche facilities infants get everything inside the jail. "To make sure that the infants receive proper care and treatment, prison authorities are always on alert. A certified vaccination centre within the prison ensures they receive necessary immunisations, covering all vital vaccines like BCG, polio, hepatitis, DPT, and tetanus, and etc. There are NGOs who are educating the children inside the jail," a spokesperson of Tihar Jail told PTI.

He further said that beside primary education, a variety of activities like games, drawing, and singing are also being provided to the children.

"After six years of age, they have to step into the outside world. Either they are sent back to their family members if they are willing, and if not, there are NGOs who take care of them," Tihar officials said.

According to jail rules, after the age of six, children are not allowed to stay inside the prison even if their parents are still in prison.

“Jail authorities ask their relatives to take care of the children. If any relative is not willing, we hand them over to child care centres or NGOs. In some cases, they even get adopted by other families through orphanages," another senior official said.

"We ensure overall development so they can achieve their goals," said the official.

As per the jail manual, every prison should have a well-equipped creche and a nursery school so that children are looked after. Children below three years of age will be sent to a creche, and those between three and six years shall be looked after in a nursery school.

"The creche and nursery school shall be run by the prison administration preferably outside the prison with the assistance of NGOs or state welfare services.

"In the event the prison administration considers it difficult to run a creche, arrangements should be made to send the children to a privately run creche under proper security," it says.