More than 120-year-old Act discriminating between prisoners, amended in Rajasthan

By Archana Sharma Jaipur, March 16 : Believe it or not, the 120-year-old Act in which prisoners from backward castes were not allowed to work as cooks in Rajasthan jails’s till January 2021 has finally been amended, said prison officials.
This Act, framed 120 years ago during the British regime, discriminated between prisoners on the basis of caste in delegating tasks such as cooking and cleaning in jail.
Director-General (DG) Prisons, Rajasthan Rajeev Dasot strongly pitched for this change in January this year and made sure he got the Act amended in February this year.
Speaking to IANS, Dasot said, “Despite India attaining Independence and new laws being framed, the practice of discriminating between prisoners on the basis of caste continued under The Rajasthan Prisons Rules, 1951 which were made under The Prisons Act, 1894 (central Act no. 9 of 1894).” This Act clearly mentioned that cooks in the prison shall be Brahmins or high-caste Hindu prisoners. Cleaning work was entrusted to the so-called ‘lower caste’ inmates.
Surprisingly, this discrimination continued even after the country’s independence when newer laws were formed, Dasot said, adding that the High court and some NGOs pointed out this discrimination to him and he immediately decided to propose for its amendment.