NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs has asked all the states and union territories to provide financial assistance from a Central fund to poor prisoners who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine owing to financial constraints.

In a communication, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has conveyed to all the states and union territories to avail the funds made available by it from where they can draw an appropriate amount to provide benefits to the eligible prisoners.

Funds to the states and UTs are provided through the Central Nodal Agency (CNA). The National Crime Records Bureau has been designated as the CNA for this scheme.

"As you are aware, the Ministry of Home Affairs had introduced the 'Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme' in May, 2023, with the objective of providing financial assistance to states and UTs for extending relief to poor prisoners who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine on account of financial constraints," the communication said.

However, the MHA said, despite repeated follow-up, funds have remained unutilised as many states and UTs have not identified the eligible prisoners and have not provided the benefit of the scheme to them.

While a few states and UTs have utilised the funds, the overall implementation of the scheme by them has not been very encouraging, it said.

The MHA has already issued guidelines and a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the implementation of the scheme.

As part of the guidelines, states and UTs were advised to constitute an 'empowered committee' in each district and an 'oversight committee' at the state headquarters level.

According to the guidelines, these committees are responsible for sanctioning financial aid to the eligible prisoners.

The MHA said that during the several conferences held with the states and UTs to review the implementation of the scheme, its importance was consistently emphasised, highlighting its potential to bring relief to the poor prisoners who remain incarcerated due to financial constraints.

"It may be appreciated that effective implementation of the scheme can not only help mitigate the problems faced by the poor prisoners, but also contribute towards reducing overcrowding in prisons.

"The states and UTs are, therefore, requested to make concerted efforts in identifying the eligible prisoners as per the guidelines of the scheme and hold regular meetings of the empowered committees in each district for providing relief to the poor prisoners," the MHA said.

According to the India Justice Report 2025 released recently, the national average occupancy rate in jails is of more than 131 per cent. The number of undertrial prisoners is estimated to be 76 per cent of the entire prison population.

The report suggested that the prison population is expected to reach 6.8 lakh by 2030, even though the capacity in jails is likely to grow up to 5.15 lakh only.

MHA officials said while there was no overcrowding in some states, the jails in few states are still heavily overcrowded.