NHRC Advisory on Rights of Female Inmates and Children

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India issued an advisory on 28 October 2026 on the Protection of Human Rights of Female Inmates and their Children. It has gone to nine Union Ministries, to the Chief Secretaries and Administrators of every State and Union Territory, and to their Directors General of Police.

Why the Commission acted

The Commission holds that women behind bars, and the children who live with them or are separated from them, form a more vulnerable group within the prison population and therefore need focused attention and a gender-responsive approach. Its advisory goes past custodial safeguards alone. It asks for humane conditions inside prisons, proper maternal and child healthcare, access to justice, the keeping alive of family ties, protection of the best interests of children, and real openings for rehabilitation and a return to society.

The ten areas for action

• Pre-admission, arrest and entry into the prison system
• Admission records, child database and documentation
• Health, medical care and mental health services
• Living conditions, hygiene, welfare and sensitisation for women inmates
• Children living with prisoners or separated from them
• Communication, mulakat and family contact
• Prison administration, legal aid and access to justice
• Gender-responsive facilities and welfare measures when women inmates are produced in court
• Rehabilitation, release and social reintegration
• Foreign national inmates

What the authorities must do

The Commission has urged every authority concerned to act on the recommendations and to send back an Action Taken Report (ATR) within two months, so that it can follow how far the advisory has been put into practice. The detailed advisory has been placed on the Commission's website for public reading.

About the Commission

The NHRC is a statutory body that looks into the violation of human rights or negligence in preventing such violation by a public servant, and it issues advisories of this kind to governments and police forces. By addressing this one to ministries, chief secretaries and police chiefs together, the Commission has placed the duty on both the prison administration and the departments that deal with women, children, health, law and social welfare.