Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and one of the largest complex of prisons in India. It has 9 functional prisons spread over more than 400 acres.[2][3] Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one of the three prison complexes in Delhi. The other two prison complexes are at Rohini and Mandoli with one and six central prisons respectively.[4] Tihar prison complex is located in Janakpuri, approximately 3 km from Tihar village in West Delhi.
The prison is styled as a correctional institution. Its main objective is to convert its inmates into ordinary members of society by providing them with useful skills, education, and respect for the law. It aims to improve the inmates' self-esteem and strengthen their desire to improve. To engage, rehabilitate, and reform its inmates, Tihar uses music therapy, which involves music training sessions and concerts.[5] The prison has its own radio station, run by inmates.[6] There is also a prison industry within the walls, manned wholly by inmates, which bears the brand Tihar.[7] As of December 2023[update], Tihar jail has 14,059 inmates against the sanctioned capacity of 5,200. The prison population as on 31.12.2023 has increased by Double in comparison to the population as on 31.12.2018.[1][8]
History
Originally, Tihar was a maximum-security prison run by the State of Punjab. In 1966 control was transferred to the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Beginning in 1984, additional facilities were constructed, and the complex became Tihar Prison, also the largest jail in India.
Under the charge of IPS officer Kiran Bedi, when she was Inspector General of Prisons, she instituted a number of prison reforms at Tihar, including changing its name to Tihar Ashram. She also instituted a Vipassana meditation program for both staff and inmates; initial classes were taught by S. N. Goenka. The Prison has also produced an inmate who has passed the UPSC civil service examinations.[9]
Many of the inmates continue their higher education through distance education. The campus placement program was launched in 2011 for the rehabilitation of inmates about to complete their sentences. In 2014, a recruitment drive led to 66 inmates selected on the basis of their good conduct, received job offers with salaries up to ₹35,000 (US$440) per month, from as many as 31 recruiters, which included educational institutions, NGOs and private companies.[10][11]
Jail factory
In 1961, the Jail Factory was established in Central Jail No.2, at Tihar. Over the years its activities have expanded to include Carpentry, Weaving (Handloom & Powerloom), Tailoring, Chemical, Handmade paper, Commercial art, and Bakery. Later in 2009, a shoe manufacturing unit was established using the Public-Private Partnership model, and thus the brand TJ's was launched. As of May 2014, 700 inmates work in these units, and 25% of their earnings are deposited in the Victim Welfare Fund, which provides compensation to the victims and their families.[12] A CSR initiative has been launched to provide a Level 4 training program comprising 340 hours of coursework to 1,200 inmates from the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) to empower inmates for a productive post-release life, as a step toward the rehabilitation of undertrials incarcerated for minor offences.[13]
Tihar Jail muffin and brownie
Notable prisoners
Abhijit Banerjee — Indian born American nobel laureate. While studying in JNU, he was arrested and imprisoned in Tihar Jail during a protest after students surrounded the then Vice Chancellor PN Srivastava of the university
Anubrata Mondal — Indian politician accused of cow smuggling
Charles Sobhraj — an international serial killer, secretly escaped from Tihar on 16 March 1986, but was recaptured shortly thereafter, returned to the prison and sentenced to an additional ten years for the escape. He was released and deported on completion of his term on 17 February 1997
Ripun Bora — education minister of Assam's Tarun Gogoi-led Congressional government, the main suspect in the Daniel Topno murder case, was arrested by CBI officials on 3 June 2008 and sent to Tihar on 7 June 2008[citation needed]
Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal — Indian social activists fighting against corruption, were imprisoned in Tihar for protesting conflicts between differing Civil Society and UPA Government anti-corruption bills, known as the Jan Lokpal Bill and the Lokpal Bill, respectively
Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, Khalistani militants, main accused in the assassination of Punjab Chief minister Beant Singh[17]
5 of the accused in the 2012 Delhi gang rape; Ram Singh (committed suicide in March 2013), Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta & Vinay Sharma; they were hanged on 20 March 2020
Sher Singh Rana, who had been arrested for the murder of Phoolan Devi in 2001, escaped from Tihar jail in February 2004. He was arrested again in 2006, in Kolkata.[26]
In June 2015, two prisoners who were waiting for their trial in Tihar jail escaped through a tunnel.[27]
Health concerns
The prison complex has no facilities for keeping paraplegic pre-trial inmates or convicts.[28]
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 1997 documentary about the introduction of S. N. Goenka's 10-day Vipassana classes at Tihar Jail in 1993 by then Inspector General of Prisons in New Delhi, Kiran Bedi. Bedi had her guards trained in Vipassana first, and then she had Goenka give his initial class to 1,000 prisoners.[30]
In the movie Jailer (2023), Rajinikanth is shown as Tihar Jailer "Tiger" Muthuvel "Muthu" Pandian.
See also
Black Warrant, non-fiction book about prisoners in the jail
