~By Jugaad Singh
“No one can understand the reality of the prison experience until they’ve actually walked in the shoes of those who are incarcerated.”
– Bryan Stevenson
Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
INTRODUCTION
Considerations about the quality, quantity and nutritional value of prison food are not something a person who has never been incarcerated loses sleep over. However, many prisoners around the world who have suffered through daily rations of unpalatable and even downright harmful prison food consider this as one of the biggest concerns about prison conditions. Our diet is a reflection of who we are and a link to the people, places, and cultures we care about. Along with them having their life and liberty taken away, lakhs of prisoners are being subjected to the hidden punishment of inedible food, preventing inmates from developing a positive relationship with the food they eat.
According to the Bangalore Prison Mental Health Study, the quality of the food was the major reason for dissatisfaction in 60% of the resident prisoners. Despite being championed by the Supreme Court (hereinafter “SC”) in several landmark cases and our Parliament in several policy decisions, the well-established right to food does not seem to permeate the bars of our prisons. This article aims to look into the conditions of prison food and the relevant laws in India. It also aims to draw a comparison with prison systems outside of India.
THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO FOOD
The Right to Food has been established by the SC through its landmark decision in People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India & Others in a bid to ensure food security and a basic level of nutrition for India’s vast impoverished population. The inclusion of this right within the ambit of Article 21 of the Constitution was made possible by the SC’s observations that the right to life means something more than animal existence and includes the right to live with human dignity and would include all these aspects which would make life meaningful and complete. The existence of this right has also been internationally recognised and accepted by the UN under The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (The Nelson Mandela Rules). It has also been reiterated time and again by the SC that a person does not cease to be a human being while being lodged in jail and enjoys all the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. While the right to food and food-related laws in India are powerful and complex, prison food laws are highly substandard.
THE LAW ON PRISON FOOD IN INDIA: THE PRISONS ACT, 1984
It seems as if the public at large has either forgotten or chosen to turn a blind eye to the inherently discriminating and dehumanizing nature of our prison laws. The Prisons Act of 1984 is a colonial piece of legislation that has failed to adapt and imbibe our modern constitutional values. It gives a broad outline of the functioning of prisons in India. However, despite being such a comprehensive manual, it seems to skim over the aspect of providing adequate and nutritional food to prisoners. This Act only provides a provision for civil and unconvicted criminal prisoners to maintain themselves from private sources to the extent of purchasing or receiving food at proper hours. For criminal prisoners or civil prisoners maintained in a manner other than at their own cost, the act grants the state government the power to make rules.
Under the 7th Schedule, List II, Entry 4, prisons (their management and administration) fall exclusively under the domain of the state governments, making it their responsibility to look after the dietary requirements of the prisoners. Although the food served in the prisons may differ due to the culinary diversity of the nation, the states are under an obligation to observe certain minimum guidelines for the diet of inmates prescribed by central legislation.
THE STATUS OF STATE PRISON MANUALS
Unfortunately, the state prison manuals, which have barely seen any amendment, have not made any effort to remedy the lacunae in the laws related to prison food. This has allowed for the continuation of the inhumane treatment of prisoners by providing them with food lacking in both quantity and quality. Prison Manuals from states such as Punjab, Delhi and Maharashtra all suffer from similar shortcomings as they vest excessive authority in the prison officers for the inspection of the quality of prison food. Reference to the above can be found in Chapter VIII, Part – A, Rule 21 & Chapter XII, Part III of the Delhi Jail Manual; Rules 68, 166, 831 & 832 of the Punjab Jail Manual; and lastly Chapter XIV, Section 1, Rule 9 of the Maharashtra Jail Manual.
With no independent body to examine the quality of prison food, it is subjected to arbitrary parameters such as ‘wholesomeness’ & ‘satisfaction’ of the officials. These manuals are not cognizant of the basic calorie and nutrient requirements of the prisoners. The most inhumane of these provisions is that a prisoner may even be penalised for refusing to eat such food as refusal to eat the same would be an act constituting as a prison offence under many of these state manuals.
Although prisons are mandated to provide three meals a day, most of the prisoners feel dissatisfied and disgusted with the food they are served. A study by Dr. Banamali Barik analysed the adverse effect of inadequate prison food in India, lacking in taste as well as nutrients, on the health and psyche of the prisoners, making them more prone to suicide, self-harm or even assaulting officers or other inmates. Recent studies suggest that small changes to the quality of prison food can drastically reduce such tendencies.
According to Dr Lalitkumar Anande, after entering prison, the diet of an inmate sees a significant change which lowers their immunity towards latent TB bacteria. Such a prisoner may cough 50 to 100 times a day, putting at risk not only himself but also other inmates and the prison staff. In a report by The Indian Express, it was revealed that the incidents of TB in prisons in Mumbai are eight times higher than in the general population.
Surprisingly, the recent Prison Statistics India Report, 2021, reveals that almost 54.3% (Rs. 1143.34 Cr) of inmates’ expenses were spent on food. Despite the sufficient allotment of funds, the food served in prisons is lacking on all fronts. The cheapest, balanced and healthy diet recommended by the EAT-Lancet Commission costs at least $3 (Rs. 246) per person per day. However, the national average for procuring three meals a day per prisoner is only $0.64 (Rs. 52.42), with it being even less in states like Maharashtra (Rs.34), Gujarat (Rs.35) and Delhi (Rs.31). Unfortunately, prison superintendents often brag about being able to procure the food in their prisons for less. Any person who has had to buy and cook food will realize that this amount is nearly not enough for a single well-balanced meal, let alone three meals. In addition to this, the rising population of India’s already overpopulated prisons does not bode well for the quality and quantity of prison food either.
Inmates are often made to do gruelling physical work inside the prisons but the food that they are provided with is not a sufficient source of nutrition. The poor and illiterate inmates are the worst affected as they are being deprived of their right to food due to the well-organized and systematic corruption in our prisons. In his book In Jail, Kuldeep Nayar, an Indian journalist who also served as the High Commissioner of India to the UK and a member of the Rajya Sabha, wrote about the corruption in the Tihar Jail during the Emergency period. He observed that a bulk of prison food, especially milk, was stolen and then adulterated by various middlemen. The balance that was provided to the prisoners was considerably less than what was required for the proper maintenance of their health. Whereas on the other hand, the deprivation of good and nutritional food harms the identity of the person and they tend to balance this feeling of powerlessness by using informal food systems, such as bribing guards or other inmates for food, in which they disobey prison regulations.
Additionally, 65.90% of the prison inmates belong to either SC, ST, or OBC category. Many of these colonial manuals also contain provisions for caste-based discrimination between the prisoners which extends to the service of food in prisons. The prevalence of caste has been formalized in our prisons through the individual state prison manuals which assign labour in kitchens based on one’s caste. The provisions in these manuals regarding the ability of an inmate to purchase or receive food from outside are also favourable for those belonging to the ‘upper’ castes. Representatives from National Dalit Movement for Justice have also reported that many Dalit and Adivasi inmates face discrimination in the service of food.
It is in light of these challenges faced by prisoners in India that there is a need for a comprehensive prison manual which aims at reform and transformation in the provisions pertaining to food served in prisons. Part II of the blog tackles the introduction of the Modern Prison Manual of 2016 as well as providing a global perspective of the problem along with possible solutions.
The author is a third-year B.A. LLB student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law.