‘No caste discrimination in prisons’: HP tweaks jail manual

Shimla: In what is seen as a significant step to end caste-based discrimination, the Himachal Pradesh government has tweaked the state Prison Manual 2021 to stop the segregation of prisoners on the basis of their castes in jails.

Confirming the move, a senior official said the state government has changed all of the caste-based clauses in the HP Prison Manual 2021 in order to guarantee equality to the prisoners lodged in the state’s jails.

“The old system of caste-based work distribution among inmates has been finally done away with,” said the official, terming it as part of ‘Vyavastha Parivartan’.

Giving credit to Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, he said, the state government is taking decisive action to guarantee that caste-based prejudice does not exist in Himachal Pradesh’s prisons.

In October 2024, the Supreme Court had declared caste-based discrimination in prisons unconstitutional and paved the way towards eliminating institutional biases entrenched in the correctional system. Now, the state government has inserted a para in the Manual prohibiting caste-based discrimination in prisons and correctional institutions.

“Under the newly added provision, para 5.66 ensures that no discrimination, classification or segregation of prisoners will occur on the basis of caste. Whereas, para 5.67 further mandates that there will be no discrimination of prisoners in allotment of any duty or work in prisons on the basis of their caste.

“Para 5.68 invokes the provision that prisoners will not be engaged in manual scavenging, sewer system maintenance and septic tank cleaning,” he said

He said that a section that had previously been under paragraph 214 of the Jail Manual had been entirely removed, permitting the use of paid sweepers to do cleaning duties in the absence of female inmates.

A spokesperson said that now the jail records will no longer mention the caste, community or religious affiliations of inmates of prisons. The state government has introduced these reforms through the HP Prison Manual Second Amendment, 2025.