The majority of India’s population, both rural and urban, lives in homes with space smaller than the minimum floor area per person recommended for prison cells. This shocking reality emerges from comparing the National Sample Survey Office NSSO ) 69th round survey report on housing conditions with the Model Prison Manual 2016.About 80% of the poorest rural households have an average floor area equal to or smaller than 449 sq ft. Since the average household size is 4.8 members in rural areas, this means 94 sq ft or less is available per person. This is smaller than the 96 sq ft of ground area recommended for prison cells. Of course, given India’s overcrowded jails, prisoners may well have far less living space Similarly, in urban areas, the poorest 60% of families live in houses that have an average floor area of 380sq ft or lower. With average household size of 4.1 members, the per capita space is 93sq ft for these houses, which again is lower than the recommended specifications for an ideal prison cell.Of course, some households among these will have fewer than the average number of members or somewhat bigger homes and hence have more space per person than the average. So, the proportion of people with smaller living spaces than the model prison cell may not quite be 80% of the rural population and 60% of urban Indians.But, it is safe to say that despite these deviations, a majority live in such tiny spaces. Expectedly, Dalits, adivasis have lesser space per person, as do families in poorer states. The per capita space available for scheduled caste people is 70.3sq ft while for scheduled tribes, it is 85.7 sq ft. Similarly, the poorest 20% have a per capita living space of 78sq ft in rural areas and 75sq ft in urban areas. For the richest 20%, the average is 102sq ft in rural areas and 135sq ft in urban areas.The average floor area for rural households is lowest in Bihar — at 66sq ft. About 15 states and UTs have their rural population living in space more cramped than an ideal prison cell. In eight states, per person average floor area in cities, too, is lower than a cell.The Model Prison Manual 2016 states that imprisonment doesn’t convert a person to a non-person. The code states that the prison structure has to be designed and constructed in a way that provide all necessary facilities for prisoners to be treated as human beings and hence recommends the minimum size of a prison cell.