Alarmed at the increasing number of Muslims inside Maharashtra’s prisons, the State Minority Commission has decided to undertake a survey on the religious composition of prisoners and the charges under which they have been kept behind bars. “The percentage of Muslim prisoners is disproportionately high in our prison system. There are, however, varying numbers that are given out by various agencies. We are commissioning a study with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to do a holistic survey on the religious composition of prisoners and also under what charges people are behind bars,” said State Minority Commission Chairman Munaf Hakim. Hakim said the study would help the state in working out a strategy to counter the perceived discrimination felt by the Muslim community. He added that the study would also help in providing redress and help to a large number of convicts who are behind bars for petty crimes and are not able to get out because of their inability to pay bail. Muslims constitute only 10.6 per cent of Maharashtra’s population, but every third prisoner in the state is a Muslim. In 2013, they constituted 31.09 per cent of the prisoner population in the state compared to 19.06 per cent in India. Over the past decade, the state has claimed it will ensure that Muslims are not deliberately victimised by the police force. But figures over the past decade show that despite these claims, the number of Muslim prisoners refuses to go down. In 2003, Muslims constituted 29.49 per cent of the prisoner population. A decade later, their share has increased to 31.01 per cent. The claims of discrimination stem from the fact that the percentage share of Muslims in the total number of convicts is a lot lower than their percentage share in the total number of undertrials in Maharashtra. Muslims in 2013 made up 31.92 per cent of undertrials, but only 28.98 per cent of convicts, thereby indicating that a lot of Muslim undertrials are let off by the courts. For all other major communities in the country, apart from the Christians, the reverse seems to be true. The percentage share of all other communities in the total number of convicts is higher than their percentage share in the total number of undertrials. Maharashtra State DGP Sanjeev Dayal conceded there were a high number of Muslims in jail, but claimed this could also be because of the economic status of the prisoners who are not in a position to secure bail for themselves. “There is no discrimination by the police force against any community. However, it is possible that many of them who are in jail for petty offences are not able to get adequate legal aide or get bail due to their economic condition,” Dayal said.
