In yet another surprising revelation by the National Crime Records Bureau’s prison data for 2015, it has been found that over 55 per cent of undertrials are either Muslims, Dalits or tribals.
The data also showed that over two-thirds of all jail inmates are undertrials and more than 70 per cent of them have not passed Class 10.
Muslims, Dalits and tribals together account for 39 per cent of India’s population, thus their share among undertrials is disproportionate to their population, says an Indian Express report.
According to the 2011 Census, Muslims account for 14.2 per cent, Scheduled Castes (SC) 16.6 per cent and Scheduled Tribes (ST) 8.6 per cent of country’s population.
Moreover, the three communities account for a total of 50.4 per cent of all convicts.
While Muslims account for 15.8 per cent of convicts, SCs account for 21.6 per cent of undertrials and 20.9 per cent of convicts. STs make up 12.4 per cent of undertrials and 13.7 per cent of convicts.
Out of 2,82,076 undertrials lodged in various jails across the country, 80,528 (28.5 per cent) undertrials are illiterate and 1,19,082 have education levels below Class 10 (42.2 per cent).
The NCRB data also revealed that most of the undertrials have to spend three months in jail before they can secure bail – about 65 per cent of them spend between three months and five years in jail.
