BHOPAL: Demand for beauty products by the inmates lodged in the 11 central jails in Madhya Pradesh, which has country’s third highest number of prisons, to help them fight wrinkles and dark spots have stumped officials.
Jail authorities asked for a feedback from prisoners who expressed discontent after supplies from outside were stopped following the jailbreak by eight suspected Students Islamic Movement of India activists from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail in October last year.
The inmates made the demands verbally and also in writing to the various superintendents of central jails, which were then sent to the jail headquarters in state capital Bhopal.
“We are surprised with the demand for face cream because usually, the demand is for coconut or mustard oil. Perhaps the tastes of the inmates too are changing,” a jail official said in a lighter vein.
The other demands include bidis or tobacco, especially to facilitate their morning ablutions, and even salads with their food.
Some have also asked for separate buckets and bathing mugs as there aren’t enough for everyone and most of the inmates do not get to use them while bathing. Washing powder and soaps also figure in the list of demands.
Jails in India are often overcrowded with pathetic living conditions with activists complaining about rampant abuse of the rights of prisoners.
Earlier this month, minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir told the Lok Sabha more than 10% of prisons in India had an overcrowding rate of more than 200%. Of the 1401 prisons across the country, 149 were holding more than double the number of inmates as per the data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau.
The central state has 123 jails – 11 central jails, 39 district jails, 72 sub-jails, and one open jail.
According to an NCRB report, Madhya Pradesh had the second highest number of jail inmates at 38,458, including 1322 females, in 2015. There are 39,000 inmates against a capacity of 27,600 at present, according to the state’s jail department.
