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New Delhi, Feb. 26: TV or Tihar, the Indian saas has been having a tough time.
Asia’s biggest prison has decided to put all convicted and undertrial saas-nanads (mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law) with other woman prisoners. Tihar has a separate “saas-nanad” barracks — that’s what jail officials call the enclosure — where women facing or convicted in dowry cases are lodged.
The practice of putting them in a separate enclosure will end soon.
“We are now planning to allow in-laws lodged here for involvement in dowry incidents to mingle with other woman inmates,” a senior prison official said.
The saas-nanads were put in the separate barracks in jail no. 6 after several cases of assault against them by other inmates. “Other inmates looked down on them as they were arrested for either killing their daughters-in-law or torturing them. This is the reason why we started lodging them in separate barracks,” said the official.
The jail authorities hope that this time it will be different.
While the reel-life saas is fighting a losing ratings battle with reality TV shows, the Tihar in-laws have more grim problems to deal with.
Unlike their TV counterparts who stay in palatial houses and are always decked up, several of the elderly women in Tihar are extremely depressed.
“Many of them suffer from depression as they stay with women accused of similar charges. The elderly in-laws cry a lot and hardly come out of the barracks. This is why we have decided to put them with other inmates, hoping they will feel better,” the jail official added.
At present, the eldest member in the saas-nanad barracks is 86 years old. She was arrested on the charge of killing her daughter-in-law and was sentenced to life last year.
“Considering her age, we have written to the court to release her. She is very depressed and ailing and it is very difficult to look after her on a daily basis. She is a lifer and her son has also been awarded life sentence in the same case and is lodged in Tihar,” said P.L. Vinayak, the superintendent of jail no. 6.
She said the jail authorities take good care of the ageing mothers-in-laws. “We provide milk and special diets to such women considering their age and physical condition. We have to look after them really well,” she said.
There are 526 women prisoners in jail no. 6 and over 20 per cent of them are accused in dowry-related cases. “Most of the inmates accused in dowry cases are semi-literate women from slums in the capital and the national capital region. In some cases, the entire family is in jail because of a case,” Vinayak said.
A senior officer of Delhi police said some cases related to dowry are found to be fake after investigation. “But we have to arrest the in-laws as soon as we get a complaint from the daughter-in-law, otherwise we will be accused of being insensitive. In some cases, daughters-in-law lodge complaints of torture only to teach their mothers-in-law a lesson,” he said.
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