Born in prison, growing up behind bars

There was just one classroom, with four young pupils. The slightly older girl among them sang a song roughly translated as ‘If only we were winged birds, we would fly away to see Medina’. Medina is a distant place far beyond the country’s borders, but to see even what lies beyond the high walls surrounding her, the child would indeed need ‘wings’, for she is not allowed to step outside.

The classroom is at Kashimpur Female’s Central Jail (Kashimpur-3). That is where the girl was found. Her mother is serving a life sentence after being convicted in a murder case. She was three months pregnant when she arrived at the prison. One day, she suddenly went into labour while she was outside the prison building. The girl was born there, on the grass. Prison guards then named her after the grass.

With special permission from the Inspector General of Prisons, this correspondent spoke to prisoners with children at Kashimpur Female’s Central Jail on 14 July. The correspondent also met several children there that day.

Prison officials said 52 children were living with 48 female inmates there. Some mothers have more than one child. Many of the children were born inside the prison and have grown up there. They have no contact with the outside world.

On 14 July, there were 701 female inmates at the prison. The largest groups comprised 170 women convicted in murder cases and 169 convicted under narcotics-control laws. Thirty had been sentenced to death.

There are 74 prisons in the country. Of these, 25 have 26 daycare centres for the children of female inmates. In prisons without daycare centres, there are no institutional arrangements for the development and education of children staying with their mothers.

According to data provided by the Department of Prisons on 16 July, there were a total of 91,879 inmates in the country’s prisons. Of them, 3,487 were women. Among these women, 1,120 were convicted and 2,350 were under trial (arrested in connection with cases or awaiting trial).

There were 306 children staying with their incarcerated mothers. Of them, 160 were boys and 146 girls. However, the number of children rose to 312 by 26 July. There were 291 incarcerated mothers. Some mothers have more than one child in prison. Because of the confined environment and overcrowding, these children too have to live in cramped conditions.

On 16 July, Prothom Alo spoke to Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain at the Department of Prisons’ office in Old Dhaka. He said daycare centres had been established to ensure that children’s mental development and growth were not hindered by the confined environment when their mothers had to remain in prison for a long period.

Under the prison regulations, children can stay with their mothers until they are six years old. Once a child turns six, if there is no one outside the prison to take care of them, the child is transferred, with the mother’s consent, to Shuishu Paribar run by the Department of Social Services.

In response to a question, the inspector general of prisons said there are teachers for the daycare centres. Inmates who are educated also teach the children. Prisons where only one or two children are staying do not have daycare centres. However, in those prisons, the children are cared for through the prison’s own arrangements, including with some play equipment.

In Kashimpur, Gazipur, four prisons stand side by side, each enclosed by separate boundaries. Prison no. 3 is for female inmates. A paved road runs straight into the compound from its main gate, with branch roads turning off to the right and left at intervals.

In the tree-lined compound, two division buildings stand to the left, housing 12 inmates. To the right is a daycare centre for the children of incarcerated mothers. Further ahead is ‘Kalmilata’, a building for general inmates, where prisoners stay in 14 wards. There is also a cell building called ‘Madhabilata’, which houses inmates sentenced to death.

On 19 June 2016, the then home minister had told parliament that, under the prison regulations, 36 square feet of space was allocated to each inmate for sleeping. On 14 July, the prison housed 701 female inmates, despite having a capacity of 212. That meant each inmate had only 11 square feet of space.

They had to sleep on blankets spread out on the floor. There was no separate arrangement for mothers with children. A mother with her two-month-old child in her arms said she slept on the floor with her child. A prison guard standing nearby then said mothers with children were given slightly more space.

There is a small playground in front of the one-storey daycare centre. However, some of the play equipment in the playground is in a dilapidated condition. Inside, a class was under way in one room. Another room serves as a library, while another contains several swings. Children were playing with various toys in the open space inside. Four children were in the classroom. The teacher, prison guard Amena Akter said there were five children of school-going age.

The child mentioned at the beginning of this report also recited the rhyme ‘Oi Dekha Jay Tal Gachh’ (There, you can see the palm tree). Another girl recited a popular rhyme using the English names of different parts of the body. A boy was sitting quietly. It was learnt that he had come from another prison where, because there was no daycare centre, he had not been able to learn anything even by the age of five.

Prison guard Amena Akter said that after he came here, he was taught to read and write vowels and consonants. She said children are taught basic literacy from the age of three, while slightly older children are taught primary-level Bangla, English and mathematics. In addition they are also taught Arabic, dancing, singing and drawing.

In the classroom, an elderly woman wearing the white sari with blue stripes worn by inmates was seen helping the children with their studies. She said she had completed degree pass course and was serving a life sentence in a murder case. She had been in prison for 20 years. When she was imprisoned, she had two young children, who grew up with relatives.

The chatter of other children could be heard from the long open area beside the library. Pointing to a child who was playing, a woman said, “This is my child.” The child was two years and two months old.

The mother said she, her husband and sister-in-law had been sent to prison in connection with a murder case. She had been in prison for a year. Asked whether the child gets to see its father, she said the child meets its father when they go to court for hearings.

Another woman, pointing to her child, said she had arrived at the prison when she was seven months pregnant. Her child was born in prison, and she has been there with her child for three years.

The mother of the child named after grass said she had been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Her daughter can read Bangla and English. The school provides her with biscuits as a snack. She is taken to a physician when she falls ill. Her words reflected her desire to live with her daughter in a normal environment.

The mother said one of her previous children had died, while another daughter lives with her father, who has remarried. She said no one kept in touch with them. Her daughter was now over six years old, and the government could take her elsewhere at any time. She had no relative with whom she could leave her daughter.

Another female inmate said she had been in prison with her child for 21 months. The child was three years old and studied at the daycare centre. In the morning, the prison provided her son with bread, sugar, milk and bananas. At lunchtime, he was given lentils, rice and fish. Meat was provided twice a week.

Another woman said that after childbirth, essential items such as clothes, towels and nappies were provided for the child.

In 2012, the non-governmental organisation Aparajeyo Bangladesh began operating the first daycare centre for children staying with their mothers at Chattogram Central Jail. Later, at a cabinet meeting on 29 March 2015, it was decided that daycare centres would be established in prisons where more than 10 children under the age of seven or eight were staying with their incarcerated mothers.

Aparajeyo Bangladesh’s executive director Wahida Banu served as an inspector of prisons at Dhaka Central Jail for two terms over six years from 2006. She told Prothom Alo that most incarcerated mothers serving sentences come from poor families. If their children are not kept with them in prison, the children could go missing or fall victim to trafficking. Therefore, the urgent priority is to ensure the mental development and formal education of children staying with their mothers by providing training through professional teachers.

Professor Fatema Rezina Iqbal of the Department of Sociology at the University of Dhaka told Prothom Alo that there is no substitute for children being in close contact with their mothers. In that sense, it may seem positive that a child is able to stay with their mother inside a prison.

However, from another perspective, a child needs to grow up among parents, family and society for their education, mental development and socialisation. The first five years are particularly important in a child’s development. Growing up in a prison environment, separated from their family, can have adverse effects on a child. Slightly older children tend to imitate others, so if they grow up seeing criminals, there is a risk that such behaviour could influence them, she said.

According to Professor Fatema Rezina, daycare centres should be available in all prisons where threre are incarcerated mothers. Children living in prison should learn to study, draw, rhymes, poems and moral lessons under the supervision of teachers. Proper supervision of the children is necessary to ensure that they can lead a healthy and normal life after entering the outside world.