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1,100 women inmates ‘forgotten’ by families

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that around 1,100 women are among 75,000 prisoners in different jails of the country.

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“The women prisoners are in miserable conditions. Their families no longer care for them or stay in contact with them rather than pursuing their cases due to social stigma”, said an HRCP official while talking to APP here on Sunday.

Quoting figures from the latest report of HRCP, `State of Human Rights in 2012′, he said that the situation was the worst for nearly three dozen women prisoners, who were given death penalty.

They, he added, also lacked qualified medical assistance as most of the prisons did not have full time lady doctors while the rest were without a doctor.

“Women prisoners are the most vulnerable detainees,” he added. He pointed out that the lock-up area of the Women Police Centre Jail Road, Lahore, was reportedly exposed to passersby while its bathroom had only a four-foot high wall.

Such factors cause violation of privacy for women detainees, the official said.

He said that the women were reportedly kept in the lock-up much beyond the stipulated time, while there were no separate juvenile cells for girls under 18.

The report mentioned that according to HRCP media monitoring, at least 41 girls and women became victims of acid attack in 2012, 15 had their limbs amputated, heads of 37 were shaved and 49 were set on fire in different incidents across the country.

The perpetrators in a majority of these cases were related to the victims. According to Aurat Foundation, domestic violence increased by 7 per cent in 2012 over the previous year.

Statistics by the organisation showed 4,585 cases of domestic violence for the period January to June 2012.

The HRCP official said that the legislation to curb crimes against women should be implemented.

Women should to be accommodated in the socio-economic sector, with providing them greater opportunities and safeguarding their rights at workplace, he added.

The official further said that representation of women in the judiciary needed to be improved. Likewise, they should be given representation in the law enforcement departments also, he added.

Source: The Nation