MHA asks states, UTs to utilise Central fund to assist poor prisoners get hold of bail

In a communication, the Ministry of Home Affairs has conveyed to all of the states and union territories to avail the funds made out there by it from the place they’ll draw an acceptable quantity to offer advantages to the eligible prisoners.

Funds to the states and UTs are offered via the Central Nodal Agency . The National Crime Records Bureau has been designated because the CNA for this scheme.

“As you are aware, the Ministry of Home Affairs had introduced the ‘Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme’ in May, 2023, with the objective of providing financial assistance to states and UTs for extending relief to poor prisoners who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine on account of financial constraints,” the communication stated.

However, the MHA stated, regardless of repeated follow-up, funds have remained unutilised as many states and UTs haven’t recognized the eligible prisoners and haven’t offered the good thing about the scheme to them.

While just a few states and UTs have utilised the funds, the general implementation of the scheme by them has not been very encouraging, it stated.

The MHA has already issued pointers and a normal working process for the implementation of the scheme.

As a part of the rules, states and UTs have been suggested to represent an ’empowered committee’ in every district and an ‘oversight committee’ on the state headquarters degree.

According to the rules, these committees are liable for sanctioning monetary help to the eligible prisoners.

The MHA stated that in the course of the a number of conferences held with the states and UTs to evaluation the implementation of the scheme, its significance was persistently emphasised, highlighting its potential to carry aid to the poor prisoners who stay incarcerated resulting from monetary constraints.

“It could also be appreciated that efficient implementation of the scheme cannot solely assist mitigate the issues confronted by the poor prisoners, but additionally contribute in direction of lowering overcrowding in prisons.

“The states and UTs are, therefore, requested to make concerted efforts in identifying the eligible prisoners as per the guidelines of the scheme and hold regular meetings of the empowered committees in each district for providing relief to the poor prisoners,” the MHA stated.

According to the India Justice Report 2025 launched just lately, the nationwide common occupancy price in jails is of greater than 131 per cent. The variety of undertrial prisoners is estimated to be 76 per cent of all the jail inhabitants.

The report recommended that the jail inhabitants is predicted to achieve 6.8 lakh by 2030, despite the fact that the capability in jails is more likely to develop as much as 5.15 lakh solely.

MHA officers stated whereas there was no overcrowding in some states, the jails in few states are nonetheless closely overcrowded.

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