By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 02 Nov 2014: While the ratio of illiterate prisoners has made a steady decline among convicts and undertrials in last five years, but it has grown fast among detenues – a social development not easy to explain.
The Prison Statistics India – 2013 report, which was released Wednesday, says illiterates constituted 37% of total detenues in the country by the end of December 2013. This is a sharp rise in their share compared to the year 2009 when they were 27.7% of detenues.
This becomes more interesting with the fact that the ratio of illiterate prisoners in the category of convicts and undertrials has steadily gone down in the corresponding period. Illiterates constituted 30.8% of convicts in 2009 which has come down to 28.2% in 2013. Similarly, their ratio among undertrials was 33.2% in 2009 which has also come down to 28.9%.
The sharp rise in the ratio of illiterates among detenues is despite the fact that the literacy rate in the country has improved from 64.8% in 2001 to 74.04% in 2011 as per decadal censuses. For the record, in 2001, the percentage of illiterate among convicts was 34.8% which went down to 29.5% in 2011. Similarly, their ratio among undertrials in 2001 was 40.7% which also went down to 30.8% in 2011. But illiterate detenues were 31.5% in 2001 which went down to 29.0% in 2011 only to make a big jump to 34% in 2012 and 37% in 2013.
2001
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Convicts
75,663
1,23,941
1,25,789
1,28,592
1,27,789
1,29,608
Illiterate
26,370 (34.8%)
38,151
(30.8%)
37,994
(30.2%)
37,912
(29.5%)
37,255
(29.2%)
36,507
(28.2%)
Below X Class
32,819 (43.4%)
55,134
(44.5%)
56,264
(44.7%)
57,098
(44.4%)
58,014
(45.4%)
55,746
(43.0%)
Undertrials
2,20,817
2,50,204
2,40,098
2,41,200
2,54,857
2,78,503
Illiterate
89,805 (40.7%)
83,173
(33.2%)
78,836
(33.8%)
74,203
(30.8%)
76,626
(30.1%)
80,393
(28.9%)
Below X Class
83,877
(38%)
1,07,465
(43.0%)
1,02,098
(42.5%)
1,02,852
(42.6%)
1,10,385
(43.3%)
1,17,373
(42.1%)
Detenues
3510
2,232
2325
2,450
1,922
3,113
Illiterate
1107
(31.5%)
619
(27.7%)
611
(26.3%)
711
(29.0%)
654
(34.0%)
1,152
(37.0%)
Below X Class
1215
(34.6%)
1,046
(46.9%)
1007
(43.3%)
985
(40.2%)
830
(43.2%)
1,182
(38.0%)
Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Government of India.
—
Follow the writer on Twitter @MumtazAlam1978
