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KARACHI, Sept 9: There is currently no separate facility where minor girls, who are either accused of a crime or have already been convicted, could be kept under judicial custody. As such, they have to be kept with the adult female prisoners, it has reliably been learnt.
According to sources, the government has established three different places where male prisoners — those under trial as well as convicts — are kept. The adults are kept in prisons, adolescents — aged between 16 and 18 years — are kept in the Youthful Offenders’ Industrial School (commonly known as the Juvenile Jail), while boys below 16 years are kept in the Remand Home.
Established in a 600-square yard bungalow, the Remand Home is situated in a residential area in Nazimabad miles away from the prisons. Policemen are posted outside the house so that the minor inmates do not suffer from the stigma of being in a jail.
The segregation has been done to ensure that minors are not exploited by the adult inmates, sexually or otherwise, and to create an environment unlike a prison, as the stay can have long-lasting effects on the inmates during their formative period.
The sources said that while the government, realising the vulnerability of the minor boys, has taken a good step by establishing three separate facilities for males, similar steps have not been taken for the protection of girls, who are more vulnerable than boys.
Responding to Dawn’s queries Superintendent of the Special Prison for Women Sheba Shah said that minor girls are kept with the adult female prisoners, many of whom are already accompanied by their children.
“However, whenever a minor girl is brought to prison, which is rare, efforts are made to keep her in a separate barrack, away from the convicted, hardened criminals and those inmates who are accused of moral crimes,” she said. Presently there was no minor prisoner in the women’s jail, she said, adding that all the inmates were 20 or over.
“Ideally speaking there should be a separate facility so that minor girls do not come in contact with the adult inmates during their formative years,” Sheba Shah said.
Talking to Dawn, Anis Haroon, chief of the Aurat Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working for women’s rights, said the fact that there was no separate facility for minor female prisoners showed the discriminatory attitude of the government, as minor women prisoners were more vulnerable than their male counterparts.
She said that not only should such separate facilities be established for minor girls, but the government should also involve NGOs in the management and monitoring of these facilities to ensure transparency in their operations. She said that the staff
— wardens etc — that is posted at such facilities should come under the ministry of women’s development and should be properly sensitised with the issues.
‘Number of minor female prisoners negligible’
Responding to Dawn’s questions, Sarah Zaman, chief of War Against Rape (WAR), an NGO working for the welfare of rape
survivors, said that ideally speaking, there should be a separate facility for minor girls and adult women prisoners, but at present the number of minor girl prisoners was negligible, so establishing and maintaining separate facilities might not be feasible financially and administratively.
She said she had visited the women’s jail last year and was satisfied with the facilities there. She said that the children of numerous inmates were also living in the jail so there seemed to be no problem with the minor prisoners living with adult prisoners. She said that no untoward incident of exploitation had been reported and it seemed to be a safe place for females of all ages.
Talking to Dawn, Akhtar Mangi, Superintendent of the Remand Home, said that the facility could accommodate 40 to 50 inmates – aged between 12 to 16 years. Presently there were about 26 inmates, all of them under trial.
He said that the children lived in three rooms while the other rooms were used as a classroom and workshop where children studied and received training in different trades.
He said that there should be an open space so that the children could play. He said that sufficient funds for food and medicines were available but there was no doctor available so whenever the children got sick, they had to be taken to hospital.
