Carrying forward its mission to ensure the wellbeing of all citizens, irrespective of age, region or religion, the Union dispensation is now mulling over a proposal to commute sentences of prisoners, lodged in various jails of the countries, in three phases subject to fulfillment of certain criterion. Bringing a happy news for the millions of prisoners, facing sentences for various sentences, as a part of its ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, it has been proposed that names of all those prisoners, who are above age of 60 years, have completed more than half of their sentence and having a good behavior will be in the jails, will be proposed to the screening committee, for commuting their sentences. Not only this, but numerous women and transgender convicts, who are 50 years old or above with a good moral conduct, will be considered for providing benefit under the proposed scheme. Although, it has been clearly directed that the scheme will not apply to those prisoners sentenced to death or life imprisonment and convicted for rape, terror charges, dowry deaths, money laundering, under Explosives Act, National Security Act, Official Secrets Act, Anti-Hijacking Act, human trafficking etc. Pertinent to mention here that jails of the country are overcrowded with a number of inmates, facing sentences for one or another crime. As per official data, jails across the country are lodging about 4.78 lakh prisoners against available capacity of 4.03 lakh, out of which approximately 1 lakh are women. This significant step of the Government, where on one hand will provide an opportunity to several inmates, who have mended their ways, to live a normal life and on the other hand will also reduce prevailing heavy rush in prisons, to a great extent. It shows that for the ruling dispensation, welfare of its citizens is of prime importance including all those nationalist people, who had even committed some crimes, due to one or another reason in the past and are now ready to live a normal life. Under the proposed scheme, the Union Home Ministry has proposed release of deserving prisoners, in three phases, viz on August 15, 2022; January 26, 2023 and August 15, 2023, thereby providing them a real gift of independence on completion of 75 years of independence of the country.
