Bandini Jeevan: Understanding the Position of Women Prisoners in India

Rhine P and Sharma A

Published on: 2025-09-06

Abstract

In Tagore’s short story Kabuliwala (1892), Mini, the narrator's daughter and her friend Rahman, the Kabuliwala, often talk about sasural or father-in-law’s house. What becomes interesting is the interpretation behind this word. Conventionally, for a woman, it refers to the house of her husband. Mini, as a child, does not understand this, and the narrator states that, unlike the norm, they had never introduced this word to her. Furthermore, the narrator adds that for people belonging to the trade, like Rahman, sasural often meant prison. As the story progresses, Rahman is convicted of murder and is sent to prison. When Mini sees him handcuffed, she asks him if he is going to his sasural. To maintain the innocence of their friendship, Rahman says yes and jokes about how he could not hit his father-in-law as his hands were tied. The trope of the sasural becomes significant when we try to examine it from the lens of gender. The position of women within the judiciary system views them as victims. But there exists another category- that of the ‘women prisoners’. These ‘criminals’ enter the prison structure (their sasural) and undergo the ramifications of the crime committed.

The Indian Penal Code, introduced in 1860, is applicable to the entire India and every person who is found guilty of committing an offense is punishable under this act. A woman who is found guilty of committing a crime is to be treated as an offender and is imprisoned. But what happens when the same offender becomes a victim within the prison? The oldest women's prison, established in 1870, was in the news in 2017 for the assault of a woman prisoner and raised the question about the safety of women prisoners. The 2024 case in West Bengal highlighted the same. This paper primarily focuses on women prisoners who have been convicted under CrPC. This paper tries to examine the creation of the category of women prisoners within the discourse of colonial law and governance and how it continues in the present period.