The NHRC, India issues an Advisory on the ‘Protection of Human Rights of Female Inmates and their Children’

1. At a Glance

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued an Advisory on the "Protection of Human Rights of Female Inmates and their Children". It went to nine Union Ministries, and to the Chief Secretaries/Administrators and DGPs of all States/UTs [1].
• It sets out ten broad areas for action. Authorities must send an Action Taken Report (ATR) within two months [1].
• It goes beyond basic safeguards in custody. It also covers humane prison conditions, maternal and child healthcare, access to justice, keeping family ties, and the best interests of the child [1].
• Why it matters for UPSC: it brings together vulnerable sections (GS-II), statutory bodies (GS-II), criminal justice and prison reform (GS-II/III), and gender justice (GS-I). It is also a likely source of Prelims questions on NHRC powers and on prison law.

2. Why in the News

• Oct 2026: NHRC issued the Advisory. The PIB release was posted on 28 Oct 2026 [1]. The NHRC homepage lists the Advisory as dated 26 Oct 2026 [5]. Treat the date as late October 2026.
• The Advisory follows up the NHRC National Conference on 'Human Rights of Prison Inmates' of 17 Oct 2025. At that conference the Commission said it would prepare an advisory on prison reform and set up a way to monitor progress [2].

3. Background & Evolution

• 2010: The UN adopted the Bangkok Rules (UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders). They build on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners [S6, S9].
• 2016: MHA approved the Model Prison Manual, 2016. It has a dedicated framework for women prisoners and the children who live with them [S6, S7].
• 2023: MHA prepared the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, a model law that States can adopt [8].
• Dec 2024: MHA published amendments to the Model Prison Manual 2016 to comply with Supreme Court directions [6].
• Apr 2025: NHRC took suo motu cognisance of the difficulties faced by prisoners, including women inmates and their children. It sent notices to the Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs and asked for a report within four weeks, including the number of women prisoners with babies in jail [4].
• 17 Oct 2025: NHRC held its National Conference on Human Rights of Prison Inmates. It was chaired by NHRC Chairperson Justice V. Ramasubramanian. Session 2, on female inmates and their children, was chaired by Meeran Chadha Borwankar (former DG, BPRD; NHRC Core Group member) [2].
• Oct 2026: NHRC issued this Advisory with 10 areas for action, and an ATR is due in 2 months [1].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Issuing body	NHRC, India [1]
Addressees	9 Union Ministries; Chief Secretaries/Administrators and DGPs of all States/UTs [1]
Structure	10 broad areas for action [1]
Follow-up	ATR within 2 months [1]
Nature	Recommendations followed up through an ATR. The release does not describe it as binding [1]
Text	https://nhrc.nic.in/flipbook/other_advisories/46 [1]

Areas of action named in the release [1]:

• Prison administration, legal aid and court production of women inmates, with gender-responsive facilities even during court production.
• Communication, mulakat (prison visits) and family contact.
• Children living with imprisoned mothers, and children separated from them. These are treated as distinct cases.
• Child database and documentation.
• Rehabilitation, post-release support and social reintegration.
• Foreign national inmates (listed as a keyword).

Model Prison Manual 2016 anchors [6]:

• Children up to 6 years may stay with their mothers in jail. Prisons should have a crèche and a nursery school.
• Provisions for these children follow the Supreme Court's R.D. Upadhyaya v. State of A.P. guidelines: food, medical care, clothing, education and recreation.
• Women must be held in separate institutions or enclosures, staffed by women employees only.
• Pregnant women and women with infants cannot be punished by close confinement. Women prisoners get comprehensive health screening.
• Children under 18 must never be sent to prison.

Key numbers [2]:

• India's prison occupancy was 131.4% of the capacity of 1,330 prisons in 2022 (NCRB, Prison Statistics India 2022).
• The global prison population was 11.5 million in 2022, and nearly one-third were pre-trial detainees (UNODC).

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Social / Gender

• The NHRC sees women prisoners and their children as more vulnerable within an already vulnerable group [1].
• Problems raised at the 2025 conference were menstrual hygiene, mental health care, lack of skill development, and prisons being moved far from cities, which cuts inmates off from their families [2].
• The approach treats imprisonment as affecting the whole family, not only the woman inmate [1].

Child Rights

• The Advisory applies the best interests of the child principle to children living with their mothers in prison and to those separated from them [1].
• There is little reliable data on children living with their mothers in prisons [2]. The 2025 conference suggested treating these children as Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP). It also suggested adding data on children living outside prisons to the NCRB prison statistics, so that these children can reach welfare schemes [3].

Legal / Constitutional

• The Advisory is recommendatory: compliance is tracked through ATRs, not enforced [1].
• It builds on Supreme Court guidelines (R.D. Upadhyaya) as written into the Model Prison Manual, and on the 2024 amendments made at the SC's direction [6].
• Suggestions from the conference: need-based arrests, interim bail for pregnant and lactating women, and a National Policy on Custodial Women [2].

Administrative / Federal

• The Advisory goes both to the Union (9 Ministries) and to State/UT executives and police chiefs, because prisons are run by the States [S1, S8].
• The Model Prison Manual and the Model Act 2023 are models only. Whether they work depends on States adopting them [S6, S8].
• Overcrowding (131.4% occupancy) limits gender-specific facilities [2].

Ethical / Governance

• The rehabilitation and post-release reintegration areas show a shift from a punitive view of prison to a correctional one [S1, S2].
• Accountability rests on the ATR within a fixed deadline and the NHRC's monitoring mechanism [S1, S2].

International

• The Advisory matches the UN Bangkok Rules (2010) and the Standard Minimum Rules [S6, S9].
• Foreign national inmates are listed as a separate concern [1].

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• Apr 2025: NHRC took suo motu cognisance of conditions for women prisoners and their children. A report was sought from all States/UTs within 4 weeks [4].
• 17 Oct 2025: NHRC National Conference on Human Rights of Prison Inmates, with a dedicated session on female inmates and their children [2].
• Oct 2025: The conference recommended dedicated enclosures for women inmates in all jails and treating inmates' children as CNCP [3].
• Late Oct 2026: The Advisory was issued, with 10 areas for action, 9 Ministries addressed and a 2-month ATR deadline [S1, S5].

7. Prelims Hooks

• NHRC's Advisory on female inmates was sent to nine Union Ministries [1].
• The Advisory sets out ten broad areas for action [1].
• Authorities must submit an Action Taken Report within two months [1].
• The Advisory went to the Chief Secretaries/Administrators and DGPs of all States/UTs [1].
• "Mulakat" (prison visits/family contact) is a named area of action in the Advisory [1].
• Under the Model Prison Manual 2016, children up to 6 years may stay with their imprisoned mothers [6].
• Under the Model Prison Manual 2016, women's prison institutions and annexes are staffed by women employees only [6].
• Under the Model Prison Manual 2016, pregnant women and women with infants cannot be punished by close confinement [6].
• Provisions for children of women prisoners follow the SC's R.D. Upadhyaya v. State of A.P. guidelines [6].
• The Bangkok Rules, the UN rules on women prisoners, were adopted in 2010 [9].
• Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023: a model law prepared by MHA [8].
• India's prison occupancy was 131.4% in 2022, across 1,330 prisons (NCRB) [2].
• NHRC Chairperson at the 2025 prison conference: Justice V. Ramasubramanian [2].

8. Most Mothers in Jail Have Not Been Convicted

• This is mostly a bail problem, not a prison problem
• On 31 Dec 2022, 1,537 women prisoners had 1,764 children living with them in jail [11].
• 1,312 of these mothers were undertrials (people still waiting for trial, not yet found guilty). That is about 85% [11].
• About 84% of the children (1,479 of 1,764) were in jail with a mother who had not been convicted [11].

• So better crèches and better visits help, but the bigger question is why these women are in jail at all before trial.

• The main legal remedy comes too late for a small child

• Section 479 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS, the new criminal procedure law) lets a first-time offender go free on a bond after one-third of the maximum sentence. Other undertrials get bail after half [13].
• It does not apply to offences that carry death or life imprisonment [14].
• Example: if the offence carries at most 7 years, one-third is over 2 years. That is a large part of the 6 years a child is allowed to stay with the mother.

• The rule counts only time served. It does not ask whether the woman is pregnant or is the only person caring for a child.

• The duty to act already sits with the jail superintendent

• Under Section 479(3), the prison superintendent must apply to the court once an undertrial reaches the time limit [16].
• MHA ran a special campaign from 26 Nov 2024 and later said this review must be continuous, not a one-time drive [15].

• The Supreme Court said the rule also covers cases registered before 1 July 2024 [14].

• What should follow

• State prison departments should review mothers with children first in every Section 479 round. The law needs no change for this, only a change in order of priority [S14, S15].
• Parliament or MHA could look at the conference idea of interim bail for pregnant and lactating women [2]. It would fill the gap Section 479 leaves, because it would depend on care duties, not on time served.

9. Too Few Children Spread Across Too Many Jails

• Small numbers make the promised facilities hard to provide everywhere
• The Model Prison Manual asks for a crèche and a nursery school for children in jail [6].
• But India has 1,764 such children [11] and 1,330 prisons [2]. On average that is about one child per prison.
• A jail with one or two children rarely gets a full crèche, a teacher or a children's doctor. Overcrowding at 131.4% also takes up any spare space [2].

• This is a reasoned inference from the national totals. NCRB's tables do not show how many children each jail holds.

• Gathering mothers in a few well-equipped jails creates a new problem

• The obvious fix is to move mothers with children to jails that already have these facilities.
• But that takes them further from home. The 2025 conference already named distance as a cause of broken family contact [2].

• Two areas of the Advisory pull against each other here: good child facilities and mulakat (prison visits) [1].

• What should follow

• In their ATRs, States should report the facilities jail by jail, not just a State total. Then the NHRC can see which jails hold children but have no crèche [S1, S6].
• Each State should choose openly between clustering mothers and paying for facilities in local jails. It should also explain how family visits will continue if a mother is moved.

10. The Six-Year Rule Forces a Choice With No Good Answer

• Both options harm the child in some way
• If the child stays (allowed up to age 6), the child's early years are spent inside a jail [6].

• If the child leaves, mother and child are separated. Outside the jail, the child may also drop out of the records.

• The separated child is the one nobody tracks

• NCRB counts only the women who have children with them in jail [11].
• That is why the 2025 conference asked NCRB to also record children living outside, and to treat them as Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP, a category under the Juvenile Justice Act that makes a child eligible for State care) [3].

• Until that happens, the Advisory's 'best interests of the child' test cannot be checked for these children. There is no number to check it against [S1, S3].

• What should follow

• NCRB should add a column to Prison Statistics India for children of women inmates who live outside the prison, as the conference proposed [3].
• At age 6, the move out of prison should be planned with the child welfare authorities under the JJ Act, so the child does not just leave the jail with no follow-up.

11. Does One More Advisory Change Anything?

• The strongest objection
• Most of the key protections in the Advisory have been in the Model Prison Manual since 2016: separate enclosures, women-only staff, the six-year rule and no close confinement for pregnant women [6].
• MHA has already updated the Manual (2024) and drafted a Model Act (2023). States still decide whether to adopt them [S6, S8].

• The NHRC cannot enforce its advice [1]. So the critic says this is one more document that States will read and file away.

• What is right about the objection

• An advisory does not create a new legal duty. A State that has not adopted the Manual is not forced to adopt it now.

• The ATR shows only what States say they did. It is not an independent inspection [1].

• Why the Advisory still adds something

• It makes the question about the people — the mother and the child — not just the building. It also covers areas the Manual handles less directly, such as court production, family contact and life after release [1].
• It is addressed to nine Union Ministries, not only to MHA. Health, child welfare and legal aid are run outside prison departments [1].

• The 2-month ATR creates a written record. The NHRC can compare it with what its own visits find [S1, S2].

• The test to watch

• Whether the NHRC publishes the ATRs State by State, and goes back to the States that do not reply. Without that step, the objection wins.

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 1,537 women prisoners had 1,764 children living with them in jail on 31 Dec 2022, and about 85% of these mothers were undertrials (NCRB, Prison Statistics India 2022) [11]
• Data: 23,772 women inmates in Indian jails on 31 Dec 2022 (MHA reply in Rajya Sabha) [12]
• Report/Committee: NHRC National Conference on Human Rights of Prison Inmates, Oct 2025. It proposed interim bail for pregnant and lactating women, and CNCP status for inmates' children [S2, S3]
• Law/Case: Section 479 BNSS: release on bond after one-third of the maximum sentence for first-time offenders, with the jail superintendent required to apply to the court [S12, S15]. The Supreme Court order of 19 Nov 2024 applied it to pending cases [14]. R.D. Upadhyaya v. State of A.P. covers children in jail [6]
• Scheme: MHA special campaign under Section 479 BNSS, launched 26 Nov 2024 and later made a continuous process. Its relevance: it could put mothers with children first in the queue for release [15]

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: statutory bodies (NHRC); mechanisms, laws and institutions for the protection of vulnerable sections; issues relating to women and children; welfare schemes for vulnerable sections.
• GS-I: role of women; social empowerment.
• GS-IV: dignity, compassion and rights in public administration (custodial ethics).
• Possible questions: 1. Women prisoners and their children face a double vulnerability within India's criminal justice system. Examine this with reference to the recent NHRC Advisory, and suggest a gender-responsive framework for prison reform. (15 marks) 2. NHRC's role is largely recommendatory. Does this limit how effective its advisories are? Discuss with reference to its interventions on prison conditions. (10 marks) 3. 'Prisons are a State subject, but prison reform is a national concern.' Examine the role of model legislation and model manuals in prison reform in India. (15 marks)

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 and the NHRC: the Commission's composition, functions and recommendatory powers. This is the institutional basis of the Advisory.
• Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023: the latest Union model law on prisons [8].
• Model Prison Manual 2016 (amended 2024): the source of the provisions on women prisoners and children [6].
• NCRB Prison Statistics India: data on overcrowding and undertrials [2].
• Bangkok Rules and Nelson Mandela Rules: the international standards on prisoner treatment [9].
• Juvenile Justice Act and the CNCP category: linked to the proposal to treat inmates' children as CNCP [3].
• Undertrial prisoners and legal aid (NALSA): the subject of Session 3 of the 2025 conference [2].

15. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• National Human Rights Commission (Polity): The Advisory comes from NHRC; its recommendatory powers explain why compliance relies on Action Taken Reports, not enforcement.
• Undertrial prisoner (Polity): About 85% of mothers in jail are undertrials, so the problem is mainly pre-trial detention.
• Maximum detention of undertrials (Polity): Section 479 BNSS frees undertrials after one-third or half the maximum sentence, but ignores pregnancy or caregiving.
• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 (Polity): It defines Children in Need of Care and Protection, the status proposed for children of women inmates.
• Bail (Polity): Interim bail for pregnant and lactating women is a proposed remedy to keep mothers and children out of jail.
• Suo motu cognizance (Polity): NHRC took suo motu cognisance of women prisoners' conditions in April 2025, which led to this Advisory.

16. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Binding or not: the release presents the Advisory as recommendations followed up by an ATR. It does not call it a binding directive [1]. Don't confuse NHRC advisories with Supreme Court directions.
• Number traps: 9 Ministries, 10 areas of action, 2 months for the ATR [1]. The 2025 suo motu notice had a 4-week deadline [4]. Don't swap these.
• Age limit: children may stay with their mothers up to 6 years under the Model Prison Manual [6], not 3 or 5 years.
• Model ≠ law in force: both the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the Model Act 2023 are models from MHA. They apply only when States adopt them [S6, S8].
• Dates: the PIB release was posted 28 Oct 2026 [1], but the NHRC homepage dates the Advisory 26 Oct 2026 [5]. The conference that led to it was Oct 2025, not 2026 [2].