NEW DELHI: The mother-in-law, that lumbering bearer of many keys and grudges, has a special place not only in Balaji Telefilms but also in Tihar jail.

A portion of Central Jail Number Six is dedicated to housing women accused in dowry-related atrocities. Endearingly called the saas-nanad barracks, the special prison is a cluster of melancholic cells flanking a corridor leading to a courtyard.

About 1,200 mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law of dead and living victims enter this cell every year and almost an equal number either get bail or are released.

At the moment, there are about 120 in-laws here, over 26% of the female prisoners in Tihar. They are chiefly semi-literate women from Delhi and the villages around who spend their days weeping, milling around any casual visitor to describe the treachery of the girls side, praying in serious groups, listening to religious lectures, and making bags for social workers.

They even observe karva chauth, and for some reason, according to information officer Sunil Gupta, they love primetime soaps despite the frequent triumphs of the young wife in those plots. Mothers-in-law who are over 60 grimly accept the privileges of being old 400 grams of milk, butter and eggs on most days.

The idea to separate the perennially stunned in-laws, usually first-time criminals, from more seasoned female inmates, was conceived when Kiran Bedi was the Inspector General of prisons, but the mother-in-law barracks were born some time in 2000.

There is wisdom in the move to sequester the in-laws. Some of these women are, without doubt, murderers. They did kill young women who came to their house in hope. But an overwhelming majority are inside for mental torture.

They may be bad persons like many women we know but not professional criminals the way prison authorities understand the term. Bedi says that she did not want veterans in immoral trafficking and kidnapping to influence those arrested in dowry-related cases. But the mother-in-law barracks have become a howling island from where old and young women beg for release.

Several police officials confirm that there is a growing trend of the girls side putting almost all the family members of the boys side in prison and negotiating release money that runs into lakhs.

Many times, enterprising daughters-in-law, even from far-flung villages, use the benevolence of law to teach a lesson to their mothers-in-law by accusing them of torture. Over 90% of the in-laws who arrive in the barracks get bail. A minuscule portion has been convicted. Just about 10 among those in the cells right now have been given a sentence.

Many of them cannot comprehend the illegality of dowry or their harassment of the bride. It was a culture that they had seen all around them, and had suffered in silence when they were young.

The complexity of bringing law into the traditional fault lines between women is disturbing the conscience of jail officials. And not everybody who is cautiously sympathetic to the jailed in-laws is male.

I wouldnt know in percentage terms but I can say that there are several cases of women arrested in dowry-related cases who turn out to be innocent or their crimes have been exaggerated, says Kiran Bedi.

The cruel harassment that young women face today is a very real issue but what exactly constitutes abetment to suicide is never clearly defined. These days, the police are afraid of being accused of being insensitive to women. So, when the girls side files a complaint, there is a tendency to make quick arrests.

But the evil of dowry with its lasting scepters of charred girls has no other remedy but to raise a system in which it is easy for a woman to put her cruel in-laws in jail.

It is inevitable that such a system will send to the mother-in-law barracks, along with real murderers and torturers, aging women who had probably done nothing to deserve imprisonment.

When Diya was arrested, her son was about three months old. Her sister-in-law had been admitted in a hospital for burns. One hour after admission, she said that she had suffered the burns while cooking. Her condition improved and she returned to her family.

A few weeks later, due to improper care, she died of an infection. Before that she gave a second statement implicating Diya and others from her husbands family. Diya was 23 when she was arrested. That was five years ago.

Sunita was an adolescent when she was arrested nine years ago for burning her sisterin-law who eventually died. Sunita is serving a life sentence in the special cell and she still maintains that she was in her village far away when the incident occurred.

Sunita and Diya are among the many who wail when anyone visits the cell, especially a senior police officer or a new social worker.

Through prayers and handicraft, they survive the days. But convictions are rare in dowry cases, especially for harassment charges.

The numbers of the more transient inmates though, the bulk of the population here, are growing every year.

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