The Madras High Court Bench in Madurai has constituted a committee at all central prisons for women in order to identify vulnerable children of prisoners and formulate a plan to rehabilitate them.
The Bench observed that these children require moral, physical, financial, emotional and psychological support and the committee would take needful measures to provide this support. The eight-member committee will be headed by the Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
In one of the cases, Subbiah, a life convict, who was convicted for the suicide of his wife, has a 10-year-old son. Subbiah and his wife Parameshwari developed quarrel between them and as a result Parameshwari was set ablaze and gave a dying declaration that her husband is the reason for death. During the trail, their son Ajith has supported the case of the defence, where he stated that his mother poured kerosene over herself and thus attempted to kill herself.
"In a Domestic Violence, when one spouse is done to death by the other spouse, the mental agony and the psychological imbalance for the child is incalculable," the judges said.
To help the kids with such past, judges constituted a committee to find out the rehabilitation measures to be taken in respect of the children. It was represented that there are eight Central Prisons (where the life convicts are lodged) and Four Special Prisons for Women.
Further, the committee is designated to collect the nominal role of the life convicts from the Jail Authorities and also the details of their children and the assistance required for children and to submit a detailed report on March 26.
