Andhra Pradesh refuses conjugal rights to jail inmates

Visakhapatnam: A conjugal visit is a scheduled visit where an inmate is allowed to spend time with his/her legal spouse. The duration of the visit may be from several hours to several days wherein the meeting parties may engage sexually. 

In January this year, a man serving life term at a Central prison in Tamil Nadu was granted two-weeks leave by the Madras High Court for the ‘purpose of pro-creation’.

Moreover, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in 2015, had also allowed a prisoner to have a conjugal visit. 

The Judges in the Madras High Court, hearing the case, had pointed out that the Parliament had passed a resolution which deemed conjugal visits a prisoner’s right, not a privilege. These visits, they noted, helped reduce recidivism, motivated them to be good prisoners and also helped maintain relations with family members. 

Depriving conjugal rights was seen by the Madras High Court as a cause of concern in the context of rising cases of HIV/AIDS in prisons. 

When asked, if AP prison department is planning to allow conjugal visits, Prisons IG G. Jayavardhan said that in India, only in one of the Rajasthan jails, conjugal visit is allowed. In some cases, it could have been allowed. However, we have no such plans as of now. 

Asked about the rising unnatural sex or same gender sex incidents in prisons, the top officer said that the AP jails are not overcrowded like in other states. “So, we have come across a very few unnatural sex incidents.” 

Speaking about HIV cases in jails, AP State Aids Control Society (APSACS) district programme manager K.V.R. Saileja said, “There are very few HIV positive cases in Vizag and are under medication. But it is difficult to pinpoint the reasons, whether HIV was transmitted due to drug abuse or Same gender sex. We have been conducting awareness programmes whenever asked by the jail authorities.”