NEW DELHI: Around 19.5% of the undertrials lodged in the country’s jails as on December 31, 2020, belonged to the Muslim community, while 67% were Hindus, 3.5% Sikhs, 2.2% Christians and the remaining, from ‘other’ religions, the home ministry told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
As per Census 2011, the share of Hindus in India’s population was 79.8%, that of Muslims 14.2%, Sikhs 1.72% and Christians, 2.3%.
NCRB data cited by MoS(Home) Nityanand Rai in written reply to a Rajya Sabha question on Wednesday shows that as on December 31, 2020, Muslims constituted nearly 64% of the undertrial prisoners’ population in the Muslim majority state of J&K, even as Assam had more Muslims serving prison as undertrials (52%) than Hindus (41%). As many as 43.5% of the undertrials in West Bengal jails, 30.6% in Uttarakhand jails, 28.3% in UP, 26.8% in Delhi jails and 23.4% in Karnataka’s jails were Muslims.
In Gujarat, 18.2% of the undertrials were Muslims as on December 31, 2020.
In absolute terms, a total 3.71 lakh undertrials were lodged in prisons all over India towards 2020 year-end These include 2.49 lakh Hindus, 72,790 Muslims, 13,163 Sikhs, 8284 Christians & 2250 ‘others’, as per NCRB data.
In reply to another question, Rai said the number of undertrials lodged in prisons for more than 365 days at the end of the calendar year, has steadily grown from 71,996 in 2016 to 77,080 in 2017, 82,070 in 2018, 86,887 in 2019 and 1.07 lakh in 2020.
