India’s Prison Crisis: Inequality and Overcrowding Persist in 2025
India’s 2023 NCRB Prison Statistics reveal severe overcrowding with 5.82 lakh inmates in facilities built for 4.25 lakh, and undertrials make up nearly 78%. Systemic inequalities persist, with disproportionate representation of Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims. Faith-based profiling and caste-based discrimination shape imprisonment and bail access, while women and gender minorities remain structurally invisible. Data collection gaps obscure justice and reinforce marginalization.
The NCRB Prison Statistics 2023 report exposes India's deeply stressed prison system, holding 5.82 lakh inmates against a capacity of 4.25 lakh, with 77.9% being undertrial prisoners awaiting trial. This persistent overcrowding disproportionately affects marginalized communities: Dalits constitute 22%, Adivasis 13%, and Muslims 16% of the prison population, all higher than their population shares. Despite these disparities, the report remains silent on systemic causes, normalizing inequality as administrative neutrality. Faith-based profiling is openly practiced, particularly against Muslim men under anti-terror laws like UAPA and NSA, resulting in disproportionate detentions in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi. Landmark Supreme Court rulings highlight how vague laws criminalize dissent, perpetuating cycles of undertrial detention without substantive justice. Women prisoners, only 4.3% of inmates, face structural invisibility with scant access to legal aid, healthcare, or childcare, while gender minorities remain uncounted and unprotected. Overcrowding, caste-based labor inside prisons, and delayed trials exemplify how prisons reflect and reproduce social hierarchies. The refusal to disaggregate data by religion, caste, or class conceals systemic bias, while the state’s discontinuation of hate crime data hamstrings accountability. Cases in Jammu & Kashmir reveal stark contrasts between official reports and on-the-ground realities, underscoring how data can obscure state repression. Ultimately, India’s carceral system reveals a democracy at odds with its constitutional ideals, where freedom and justice are deferred by caste, class, and faith, and prison data silence masks ongoing discrimination and denial of due process.
