Why most death sentences in India do not survive appeal

Data and recent Supreme Court judgments show how trial court death sentences frequently collapse under appellate scrutiny, raising questions about investigation, evidence and the use of capital punishment.Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: Eight years after a crime that later led to a death sentence, the Supreme Court has acquitted a young man from Chennai convicted of the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.A trial court in Chengalpattu had sentenced him to death in 2018, a verdict later upheld by the Madras High Court. Earlier this month, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court overturned both judgments, citing serious gaps in the prosecution’s case.For many, the decision was difficult to come to terms with. How could a person found guilty of one of the gravest crimes by two courts be acquitted years later?“This question keeps returning again and again,” said Archana Godara, a sociologist at NM Government College in Hanumangarh. “When someone is sentenced to death for a crime that society sees as unforgivable, and is later acquitted, it creates anxiety and anger. People feel the system has failed them.”Godara added that such outcomes weaken public confidence. “There is a fear that criminals will believe they can escape punishment,” she said. “That the law will eventually let them go.”But within the judiciary and among legal researchers, the Chennai acquittal is not seen as an aberration. Instead, it reflects a pattern that has been steadily emerging across India’s courts: death sentences awarded at the trial level frequently collapse when subjected to closer scrutiny on appeal.Data compiled by Project 39A, a criminal justice research group at National Law University Delhi, illustrates this. Between 2016 and 2024, trial courts across India awarded 1,180 death sentences. Appellate courts ultimately confirmed only 95 of them. The rest were either commuted to life imprisonment or ended in acquittals.The trend has become even sharper in recent years. In the first seven months of 2025, the Supreme Court heard 14 appeals arising from death sentences. In seven cases—half of them—it ordered complete acquittal. This is the highest proportion of death sentence acquittals recorded in a single year in recent history. Of the remaining cases, four death sentences were reduced to life imprisonment.The Supreme Court has so far set aside the death penalty in nearly three out of every four cases it has heard this year.Recent examples explaining this trend are: In September last year, the Supreme Court acquitted a man sentenced to death in a 2014 rape and murder case involving a seven-year-old girl in Uttarakhand, overturning both the trial court’s verdict and the High Court’s confirmation. That same month, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted Arjun Singh, who had been sentenced to death by a POCSO court in Pali for the murder of two siblings and the rape of their sister.‘Conviction-driven’ mindsetFormer Acting Vice-Chancellor of Maharaja Ganga Singh University and senior law teacher Professor Vimlendu Tayal describes a growing “conviction-driven” tendency at the trial court level.“Local outrage, media attention, and the pressure to deliver justice quickly often push trial courts towards conviction rather than caution,” Tayal said. “The focus shifts from whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt to whether the court has responded strongly enough.”He added that inadequate training and overwhelming workloads worsen the problem. “Thousands of cases are listed before district judges. In such circumstances, it becomes difficult to examine every piece of evidence with the depth that capital punishment demands.”Former Rajasthan High Court judge Justice Gopal Krishna Vyas echoed this concern, emphasising that human emotion is inseparable from judging, particularly at the trial level.“A judge is a human being,” he said. “When a crime involves a Victim child or extreme violence, emotions do play a role. But the law is clear: death penalty must be reserved for the rarest of rare cases. Even a small doubt must tilt the balance in favour of life.”Vyas explained that in cases based on circumstantial evidence, the standard is especially exacting. “The entire chain of evidence must be complete…link to link. If even one link breaks, the case collapses. Many death sentences do not survive appeal because this standard was not met.”The Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed that capital punishment must remain exceptional. The doctrine of “rarest of rare” was articulated in the 1980 Bachan Singh judgment and reaffirmed over decades. More recently, in Manoj vs State of Madhya Pradesh (2022), the court went further, directing trial courts to examine the accused’s life history, conduct and possibility of reform before awarding death.Yet compliance remains limited.According to Project 39A’s Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics 2024, lower courts have followed the Manoj guidelines in only 7% of death penalty cases since the judgment.“The law has evolved,” said Tayal. “But practice has not kept pace.”Living on death rowWhile acquittals draw public attention, the years preceding them often remain invisible.According to Project 39A’s Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics 2023, by the end of 2023, 561 prisoners were on death row—the highest number recorded at any year-end in the past two decades. Since 2015, India’s death row population has increased by 45.71%.In 2023, the Supreme Court did not uphold a single death sentence—only the second time this has happened since 2000, after 2021. At the High Court level, only the Karnataka High Court upheld one death sentence, in a simple murder case. Everywhere else, death sentences were either commuted or overturned.The National Crime Records Bureau data corroborates this, showing that the figure of 561 death-row prisoners is the highest recorded for the second time since the beginning of this century.Most of these prisoners will never be executed. According to Lakshmi Menon, Associate at The Squire Circle, NALSAR’s criminal justice initiative, most death sentences in India are eventually converted to life imprisonment—a process that can take many years.But the time spent awaiting that outcome carries its own punishment.Once a death sentence is pronounced, even at the trial stage, many prisoners are placed in separate confinement. Prison conditions vary widely across states. Some jails isolate death-row prisoners completely; others house them with the general population. Funding for food, hygiene and healthcare is often minimal. Mental health support is rare.Women facing death sentences fare worse, with their specific needs frequently ignored.Distance compounds the suffering. Many prisons are located far from prisoners’ homes. Travel costs and bureaucratic hurdles reduce visits or make them impossible. Relationships weaken, sometimes irreparably.By the time an acquittal arrives, the accused may have already lost a decade—or more—of ordinary life.Why higher courts overturn death sentencesAdvocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court Rajendra Singhvi said, “In many cases, the investigation is weak. Forensic evidence is incomplete, digital proof is mishandled, and the crime scene is poorly documented. Public prosecutors are overburdened and underpaid. The system does not give them the resources needed for capital cases.”Singhvi added that institutional capacity and training also play a critical role. “New judicial officers often lack exposure to complex criminal trials. There are fewer public prosecutors and more cases. In Rajasthan High Court, there isn’t even one judge per ten-lakh population. Meanwhile, High Courts and the Supreme Court have more time, research support and legal assistance. That difference matters.”Former District and Sessions Judge Surendra Mohan Sharma pointed to subtler, human pressures that shape decision-making at the trial level.“There is no haste in giving decisions in lower courts, but judges also consider the social environment of that area, general expectations and sensitivity. Suppose an incident happens with a minor girl, people around expect strict action from the court. A judge also has a family, he thinks about his safety and social standing. Such human aspects sometimes make decision-making harsher.”Sharma added that judicial perspective evolves with time and institutional position. “A judge’s mature perspective also changes. When the matter goes to the High Court or Supreme Court, judges there have more time, better resources and legal assistance, they can deliberate deeply on technical and evidence-related points. That is why decisions are overturned. One reason for decisions being overturned is also time…appeals drag on…five to ten years or more.”Appeals, by contrast, unfold in a very different environment.Former Rajasthan High Court judge Justice Gopal Krishna Vyas explained that appellate courts are designed precisely for this purpose. “Their role is not to repeat the trial, but to test it,” he said. “Was evidence ignored? Was it misunderstood? Were legal principles applied correctly?”Vyas outlined how appellate scrutiny works in practice. In High Courts, murder and life imprisonment cases are heard by two-judge benches. If the judges disagree, the matter is referred to a third judge, and the majority view prevails. In the Supreme Court, death sentence appeals are heard by three judges.“The benefit of doubt is fundamental,” Vyas said. “If doubt exists, it must go to the accused. That is not leniency…it is the law.”Former Rajasthan Bar Council chairperson Navrang Chaudhary sees this layered scrutiny as a strength rather than a failure of the justice system.“Every level of the judiciary works towards the same goal: protecting the innocent and arriving at the truth,” Chaudhary said. “Correction is not collapse. It is balance.”Chaudhary recalled a principle long cited in criminal jurisprudence: it is better that several guilty persons escape than that one innocent person be punished.Tayal said the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the death penalty should be imposed only when a crime is extraordinarily harmful to society and there is no possibility of reform. However, he added, lower courts often understand this principle superficially and quickly declare cases to fall within the “rarest of rare” category.Public discomfort with acquittals in heinous crimes is real. But the data suggests that the deeper crisis lies elsewhere: in a system that too often sentences people to death before it is certain of their guilt.The unease, then, may not be about acquittals at all, but about how easily the death penalty is imposed before doubt has been fully addressed.This story was produced for and originally published as part of the Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Cover Photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva

Playful childhood lost within the prison walls

Children are allowed to stay with their mothers in jail till they attain the age of six, but their days are far from what an ideal carefree childhood would look likeSriganganagar, Rajasthan: Sriganganagar, Rajasthan: Akriti is almost six now, but her childhood has been spent largely inside the prison walls of the Sriganganagar Central Jail in Rajasthan. She has not committed any crime. Her mother, Nisha Munjal (37), is an undertrial arrested on charges of drug trafficking under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act), 1985.Children are allowed to stay with their mothers in jail until they attain the age of six.Of the total 590 inmates lodged in the central jail, 30 are women prisoners. Three of these undertrials currently have one child each living with them in the prison.In September 2024, there were five children inside the jail.Reena (20), arrested on charges of murdering her mother-in-law, gave birth to a boy in jail two months ago. She was recently shifted to the women’s jail in Bikaner to ensure better care for her child. Jaswinder Kaur (31), arrested under the NDPS Act, was granted bail recently. She had entered the jail with her one-month-old son, Pradeep, who turned two while living inside the prison and celebrated two birthdays there. The child has since been able to see the outside world following his mother’s release.“If I get a chance to be released on bail like Jaswinder Kaur, I will be able to send Akriti to school. She can also study like other children,” Nisha said. “I applied for bail several times, but without any positive outcome. Soon, I will apply again. I have full confidence in the court.”The first information report against Nisha was registered at the Sadulshahar police station in Sriganganagar district on September 26, 2020, under Sections 8 and 21 of the NDPS Act. According to the FIR, the police stopped her during patrolling and seized 1,200 Tramadol tablets from her bag during a search. On court orders, she was sent to judicial custody on September 28, 2020, and has been in jail since then.The hearing in her case has been scheduled for January 22. Slow bailsAdvocate Bharat Bhushan Nagpal, who initially represented Nisha, said the police filed a chargesheet in the NDPS court in Sriganganagar after completing the investigation. In 2022, the case was transferred to the court of the Additional District Judge in Sadulshahar.Nisha’s bail pleas have been rejected three times by the trial court and three times by the Rajasthan High Court. In her third bail petition, her lawyer Priya Bishnoi argued that the seizure was illegal because the officer who conducted it was not authorised under Sections 42 and 43 of the NDPS Act, which govern who can carry out searches and seizures and under what circumstances. She also contended that mandatory safeguards under Sections 50 and 52A, relating to an accused person’s right to be searched before a magistrate or gazetted officer and the proper handling and documentation of seized narcotics, had not been followed.“The petitioner has been in custody since September 26 and has a small child with her. The hearing of the case may take a lot of time. Therefore, her third bail petition should be accepted,” she pleaded. Public prosecutor Mukhtiar Khan opposed the bail plea, arguing that the recovery involved a commercial quantity of drugs and that Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which imposes stringent conditions on granting bail in such cases, barred any relief. The High Court rejected the petition on December 1, 2023.Jodhpur-based Bishnoi, who represented Nisha in the third bail plea, says, "The court always considers the merits. It is not necessary that the court should look at any other case with the same approach that it adopts in one case. Judges have different approaches in every case."According to Nisha, while rejecting her second bail petition on March 23, 2023, the HC had directed the trial court to expedite the trial, but the case was not moving forward rapidly in the trial court. Statements of many witnesses are yet to be recorded.​​​  In this regard, advocate Dharmendra Kumar Sharma, who is representing Nisha in the trial court (ADJ court), says the recording of evidence is still going on in the case.Confirming this, public prosecutor Major Singh of the ADJ court confirms that the witnesses are yet to be examined in the case. Jodhpur-based advocate Dron Kaushik, who has represented Nisha in the second bail petition in the HC, says that once the witnesses are examined in the trial court, Nisha should again present a petition for bail. “Often, the changed circumstances of the case also prove to be favourable for bail. Whenever a bail petition comes up for consideration, the court takes into account the circumstantial changes in that case.”Children growing up in prison Nisha’s father-in-law, Chimanlal Munjal (60), says that Nisha has two elder children who live with their maternal grandfather. “They visit us whenever they feel like, but due to illnesses, it is not possible for me and my wife to take care of the children. My son Gaurav is also facing a case under the NDPS Act.”When the case was registered against Nisha, Gaurav was in jail. He was later granted bail. Gaurav has arranged a lawyer for Nisha, and he himself pays the fees of the lawyer. His family hails from Dabli Rathan village in Hanumangarh district.Jail officials claim that they try their best to provide necessary facilities to the children in jail as per the Supreme Court guidelines. "The jail administration provides milk, food, clothes, baby powder, soap and oil for massage, toys, pencils, etc. to the children living with women in the jail, but creche and nursery are not present as there is a lack of space," Jail Superintendent Dr Abhishek Sharma tells 101Reporters. Dr Sharma adds that they try their best for the entertainment and proper upbringing of these children. However, their world is confined within the four walls of the prison, and they are completely unaware of what the outside world is like and how to live there. They do not know anything about relationships.​​​​​ Nisha is happy with the facilities provided for children in jail. Akriti was not born in jail, but Nisha recalls how the doctors in the jail would do routine check-ups when Reena was pregnant. She adds that Reena was taken to a government hospital for her delivery.According to the Prison Statistics of India, 2022, report of the National Crime Records Bureau, 53 women prisoners are living with their 58 children in the jails of Rajasthan. Across the country, a total of 1,537 women are living with their 1,764 children in the country's jails. Of them, the number of undertrial women prisoners is 1,312, and the number of children living with them is 1,479. Similarly, the number of women serving sentences after being convicted is 198, and the number of children living with them is 230. As per the data, the highest number of 325 women in the country are in jails of Uttar Pradesh, with whom their 365 children are living. There are 300 women and their 331 children in Bihar jails, and 160 women and their 213 children in jails of West Bengal. The figures recorded in the report are as of December 31, 2022.  According to the Children of Incarcerated Caregivers-2024 India Prison Nursery Report, India’s prison system faces numerous challenges, including overcrowding, traumagenic conditions, and inadequate facilities. These challenges are particularly acute for mothers in prison, who face unique difficulties in maintaining relationships with their families and accessing the resources they need to care for themselves and their children, and for their children who are socialised in such a punitive environment.Nisha’s daughter lives in a similar environment, unaware of the outside world. Nisha has also seen very little of the world in the last four years because most of her court appearances are through video conferencing. As of now, it is difficult to say when she will be able to see the light of the world.This story was produced for and originally published as part of the Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Cover Photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva

What remains after an ethanol factory shuts down

In Punjab’s Zira town the closure of an ethanol factory did not end groundwater contamination or its toll on health, agriculture, and daily life.Zira, Punjab: In Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district, farmers opposing a proposed ethanol factory in the Tibbi area often point to one place as a warning: Zira town, in Punjab’s Ferozepur district.The fears being voiced in Tibbi include air pollution, groundwater contamination, damage to agriculture, and a public health crisis following the installation of the factory. The urgency of these concerns was evident even on January 7, when farmers in Hanumangarh, under the banner of the Ethanol Factory Hatao-Kshetra Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, held a mahapanchayat in Sangaria to protest the proposed ethanol factory.Those protesting the plant told 101Reporters that the concerns being raised in Rajasthan have already played out in Zira.The ethanol factory at the centre of Zira’s experience has been shut for more than three and a half years, but its effects continue to shape everyday life in dozens of villages that fall within and around Zira town.Skin diseases that do not heal, a growing number of kidney and cancer patients, women unable to conceive or suffering repeated miscarriages, livestock deaths, and groundwater so polluted that even drinking water carries the fear of illness all of this remains the reality in Zira.Skin diseases that do not heal affect the everyday life of many villagers (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)The factory, Malbros International Private Limited, locally known as the Malbros distillery, was set up in 2006. It produced alcohol and ethanol.The plant operated for nearly 18 years before it was shut down following months of sustained protest by local residents. Farmers began their agitation on July 24, 2022, which continued uninterrupted for 177 days. In January 2023, citing mounting public pressure and environmental concerns, the Punjab government ordered the closure of the ethanol factory.Roman Barar (33), an activist of the Sanjha Zira Morcha, the organisation that led the movement to get the factory shut, said that the factory polluted water, land, and air on such a scale that not just one or two, but a total of 44 villages of the town were severely affected.What matters now, Barar added, is not when the factory shut, but what it left behind. “Three and a half years later, the problems have not ended,” he said. “That tells you the extent of what was done.”Farmers opposed a proposed ethanol factory in the Tibbi area (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporers)What stayed behindAccording to Barar, villagers had complained for years while the factory was operational, but their concerns were dismissed. “People were told this was exaggeration, that there was no proof,” he told 101Reporters. “When investigations finally began, the picture became clear.”That picture was laid out in a 2023 report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which stated that the ethanol plant in Zira had allegedly used reverse boring technology to dispose of hazardous industrial waste. Toxic effluents were injected deep underground, contaminating aquifers and making groundwater unfit for human consumption. The investigation found that the plant management had dug around 25 borewells specifically to dispose of toxic waste. This practice, the report said, led to groundwater contamination spreading across an area of nearly 15 kilometres.Water samples collected from villages such as Mansurwal, Mahianwala Kalan, and Rataul Rohi showed high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), heavy metals, and other toxic elements. In one borewell in Rataul Rohi village, cyanide was detected at four times the acceptable limit.Barar now carries a digital TDS meter with him. He uses it not as a scientific demonstration, but as a way of showing what people continue to drink every day.In Mansurwala village, water from one household recorded a TDS level of 500 mg/L. In another house, it was 1,100 mg/L. In Mahianwali village, the reading again stood at around 500 mg/L.“Earlier, almost everywhere here the TDS ranged between 2,000 and 2,800,” Barar said. “There has been some reduction. But this water is still not safe.”The World Health Organization links TDS mainly to taste and palatability. It suggests that drinking water is generally acceptable below about 600 mg/L, with 300-500 mg/L considered optimal. Much of the water consumed in the region still falls outside these limits.The investigation found that the plant management had dug around 25 borewells specifically to dispose of toxic waste (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)No reliefIn October 2023, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), acting on reports from the CPCB and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), directed authorities to ensure clean drinking water in affected villages. The reports specifically pointed to groundwater pollution in Mansurwala caused by the ethanol plant and distillery.Residents say little has changed since.“RO systems were installed in many villages, but most of them are lying defunct,” Barar said. “People are still drinking the same water.”And the health impact of living with polluted groundwater is visible across villages, though difficult to conclusively diagnose. Swarnjit Kaur, an ASHA supervisor overseeing 23 villages around the factory, said she sees the same pattern everywhere she works.“In every village, there are women who have been married for five, six, even ten years, but have not conceived,” she said. “Among those who do get pregnant, miscarriages are common.”She added that she cannot medically attribute these outcomes to pollution alone. “But before the factory was set up, such problems did not exist,” she said. She also reports rising cases of kidney disease, cancer, and chronic skin conditions.Notably, Mansurwal Kalan, where the factory was located, has emerged as the centre of illness.Surjit Kaur, an ASHA worker who has been working in the village since 2009, said health problems began appearing five to six years after production started and worsened steadily.“Women face difficulty conceiving,” she said. “When they do conceive, miscarriages often happen after three or four months.” She estimated that seven to eight people in the village have already died from cancer and kidney disease.In neighbouring Lehran Kalan village, ASHA worker Amritpal Kaur said cancer and skin diseases remain widespread, forcing people to seek treatment in private hospitals.Vichitar Singh (70), from Mansurwal village, said several residents had died due to cancer and kidney disease. A 40-year-old kidney patient, Rajveer, passed away recently. “My son Harpreet, who is 42, has kidney failure,” he said.Diljit Singh (60) showed scars on his back and legs. “I have been undergoing treatment for four to five years,” he said. “The skin disease has not been cured.”Harjant Singh (70) said both he and his elder brother suffer from chronic skin problems.Older residents remember a different time. “Our groundwater was sweet like honey,” said Thakur Singh (82). “The factory people ruined it.” Even now, he said, if water is left standing in a vessel, it turns reddish and appears to  be soapy. His granddaughter, Khushpreet Kaur (19), said her hair has been falling out. “All girls and women here are facing this problem.”Another villager, Harchand Singh, said the damage was not only medical. “Relatives stopped visiting,” he said. “For some time, even marriages stopped taking place.”There's a pattern of miscarriages among women in 23 villages around the factory, says an ASHA worker (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Ground zero Mahianwali village was where pollution from the factory was first detected.In 2022, black-coloured water emerged during boring work at a langar hall built on the premises of Baba Dunichand Ji’s samadhi site, after which villagers grew suspicious.  Iqbal Singh (62), Kalwant Singh (65), and Gurcharan Singh (58) pointed to the borewell where the water surfaced. “This is when we suspected the factory,” they said. “Later, the reports proved us right. And we are still suffering the consequences.”In Mahianwali, many residents still depend on traditional healers. Harbhajan Singh (60), who has been treating villagers for 25 years, said such illnesses were not common before the factory began operations.“In 2007-08, skin diseases, kidney problems, jaundice, breathing issues, vomiting, and diarrhoea started increasing,” he said. “At first, people thought it was normal.”Soon, jaundice and itching spread to almost every household. “The itching did not respond to medicine,” he said. “Even if it improved, it returned.”Medical expenses increased, forcing people to travel to Moga, Zira, and Faridkot for treatment.Spread of damagePeople in Rataul Rohi village report similar suffering.According to the CPCB’s 2023 report, excessive amounts of heavy metals were found in groundwater samples from Mansurwal, Mahianwala Kalan, and Rataul Rohi. In Rataul Rohi, cyanide was detected at four times the permissible limit.Buta Singh (53) said that even after the factory shut, drinking water remains unsafe. “People are suffering from cancer, jaundice, lung disease, kidney disease, and skin problems,” he said.Jaswinder Kaur (40) said people are “going to their deaths.” Her 16-year-old nephew, Jaskaran Singh, died of kidney failure last year. Nisha (20) said poor families cannot afford treatment and demanded a comprehensive public health campaign across the region. Karamjit Kaur (45) lost her husband Buta Singh two years ago. He worked as a labourer at the factory. “He developed an allergy on his legs and had to quit work,” she said. “A few days later, his kidneys failed. Then he was diagnosed with cancer.”He did not survive. Her 22-year-old daughter has been suffering from throat problems for months. “I fear it could be cancer,” she said.ASHA worker Kanwaljit Kaur said ten to twelve people in the village have died of cancer, including close relatives. She also confirmed widespread infertility. “Miscarriages are so many it is difficult to count,” she said. Many women have been married for four to twelve years without children. Some families have adopted.What remains unansweredHealth workers acknowledge that drug addiction among young men has led to impotence in some cases, but say this does not explain the scale of infertility.“In my area, more than a hundred women cannot become mothers,” Swarnjit Kaur said. “Not all husbands are addicts.”There is no local epidemiological study conclusively linking pollution to infertility. However, broader research suggests a connection. A recent Lancet study linked poor air quality in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to pregnancy loss, particularly among rural women and older mothers.The impact of pollution is not limited to humans. Harmandar Singh from Mansurwal said that in February 2022, at the peak of pollution, 85 buffaloes died within two days. “Ash was falling in the fields. We were irrigating with polluted water,” he said.Since then, miscarriages among animals have become common. Mukhtiar Singh said two cows and one buffalo miscarried on his farm. Artificial insemination is now frequent, weakening animals and increasing costs.Farmers also say that years of irrigating fields with polluted groundwater and exposure to factory ash have degraded soil quality. In Lehran Rohi village, rice yields have fallen from 80-85 man (one man equals 40 kg) per acre to 65-70 man, while wheat yields have dropped from 55-60 man to 40-45 man. Similar declines are reported in Mahianwala and Mansurwal villages.Local cost of national pushThis situation in Zira unfolds as India celebrates achieving its 20% ethanol blending target in 2025, five years ahead of schedule. Ethanol production rose from 38 crore litres in 2014 to over 661 crore litres by June 2025.Environmental scientists, however, warn that grain-based ethanol plants are highly polluting and that environmental clearances underestimate emissions.According to the environmental group Scientists for People, ethanol plants release pollutants such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, acrolein, and hexane: chemicals linked to respiratory illness, neurological damage, and cancer.In November, the Punjab government and the Punjab Pollution Control Board filed an affidavit in the NGT acknowledging that the Mansurwal distillery repeatedly violated environmental rules and caused serious harm to air, water, soil, and public health. The affidavit recommended that the unit not be allowed to restart, invoking the polluter-pays principle.An official of Malbros International, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied all allegations and said pollution had not been proven even around the factory. He said the company had invested Rs 300 crore in the plant, of which Rs 200 crore were loans, and was incurring heavy losses. The company has petitioned the NGT to restart the factory. A hearing is scheduled for January 6.Meanwhile, protesters remain camped outside the factory.“We are not against industry,”Barar said. “We raised our voice because our water, land, and air were destroyed.”For Zira, the factory may be closed. But what it released underground continues to shape life — and illness — long after its gates were locked.This project is supported by the Internews Earth Journalism Network with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) Cover photo - Closure of an ethanol factory wasn't the answer to Zira's issues (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)

A new law against protesting with bodies meets old habits in Rajasthan

Families continue to delay funerals and hold protest with bodies to seek relief, despite a 2023 law criminalising the practice.Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: On December 7, the Rajasthan government notified the Respect for Deceased Bodies Act, criminalising the use of a corpse as a tool of protest. The law makes it mandatory to conduct a funeral within 24 hours of death, barring limited exceptions such as a pending post-mortem or close relatives being outside the state. Blocking roads, holding on to a body to exert pressure, or delaying last rites can now invite one to five years of imprisonment and fines.The move targets a practice that has become routine in Rajasthan. After unnatural deaths, mourning is increasingly being followed by protest. Families often place bodies on roads or outside police stations and collectorate offices, refusing cremation until compensation or action is assured.Take for example a recent case in Sri Ganganagar. After a farmer died from electrocution caused by a snapped power line, villagers staged a two-day protest with the body. The funeral took place only after assurances of Rs 18 lakh in compensation from multiple agencies. Protest leaders openly said the family would have received nothing without agitation. Similar scenes played out in Hanumangarh after the death of a four-year-old at an anganwadi, where last rites were delayed until compensation and a job were promised.Such protests, seen after road accidents, electrocutions, medical negligence and workplace deaths, have become a familiar pressure tactic. The new law seeks to curb them, arguing that they disrupt public order and strip the dead of dignity.Villagers sit on a protest with the body of an accident victim in front of the police station in Goluwala, Hanumangarh district. (Photo: Balwinder Kharoliya)A protest with a precedentIn 2017, then Rajasthan Human Rights Commission chairperson Justice Prakash Tatia had ruled that using a dead body as a form of protest violates the dignity of the deceased. The observation came after the family of gangster Anandpal Singh, killed in a police encounter, refused to cremate his body for 19 days. In his order, Tatia had said a deceased person retains limited human rights, including the right to a dignified funeral. That right vests first with the immediate family and cannot be withheld for any other purpose, he had noted.Retired Indian Police Service officer Dilip Jakhar echoed this view. Preventing a funeral, he said, amounts to a violation of human dignity and human rights. Under the law, a dead body is not the property of anyone and the relatives may take custody only to perform the last rites. If they refuse to do so after a post-mortem examination, the police are empowered to carry out the cremation themselves. In practice, Jakhar said, this provision is rarely used. Large crowds often gather around the body, making enforcement difficult and raising the risk of law-and-order breakdowns.It was to address such situations that the Ashok Gehlot government passed the Rajasthan Bill on Respect for Deceased Bodies in July 2023. The law, which came into force in August that year, also penalises family members, organisations and political leaders who delay funerals due to social or political pressure, prescribing jail terms of up to five years. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed the Bill while in opposition, it did not amend it since coming to power and the long-pending rules were finally notified in December, 2025. Yet, the law – which came into force in 2023 – has done little to alter ground realities. Government data showed that between 2014 and 2018 alone, there were 82 instances of bodies being placed on roads as part of protests. Even after the Act came into force it has not yet disrupted a familiar pattern on ground. On November 26, 2025, after the murder of an elderly man in Harwani Sansarpur in Dungarpur district, villagers placed the body on the road in protest. The same day, the body of saint Purushottam Das Maharaj, found under suspicious circumstances at a temple in Jaipur’s Nimbi village, was kept at the premises during a day-long agitation.In Chittorgarh, the body of courier businessman and BJP leader Rameshchandra Inani was placed inside the district collectorate a day after he was shot dead on September 28, 2025. A month earlier, in Bundi district, the family of Sonu Singh Hada and members of the Karni Sena blocked the Kota-Udaipur highway with his body following his murder.Similar protests followed the deaths of a vegetable vendor in Beawar, accident victims in Tonk and Dausa, and a young man whose family kept his body outside a government hospital in Lalsot. Jakhar said that just the existence of law would not bring about a change. “If the Act exists, the police must implement it,” he told 101Reporters. “That is not happening.”Meanwhile, retired IAS officer SP Singh claimed that compensation is at the heart of these protests. “State assistance for accidental deaths is often as low as Rs 50,000,” he said. “Families are desperate, regardless of how the death occurred. Compensation should be need-based, and responsibility must be fixed on the department or agency at fault. Without accountability, these protests will continue.”Families continue to delay funerals and hold protest with bodies to seek relief (Photo - Balwinder Kharoliya)When protest brings no reliefProtesting with a body does not always lead to compensation or justice. In several cases, it ends with assurances that never materialise.On August 21, the family of Hansraj (35), a brick-kiln worker from Hardayalpur in Hanumangarh district, staged a protest outside the local police station after he died in a road accident. They demanded compensation and the arrest of the driver. After officials assured them of help, the family cremated the body the same evening.Nothing followed.Hansraj’s father, Gopiram Nayak (61), said his son had remained in a coma for two months, during which the family spent nearly Rs 15 lakh on treatment, borrowing money and mortgaging land. “We have not received a single penny yet,” he said. His brother Rahul Nayak added that Hansraj’s widow now works at the brick kiln to support two children. “We protested because influential people told us it was the only way. Once the body was cremated, no one listened.”Former officials say such assurances are often aimed at ending the protest rather than ensuring relief. The administration’s immediate priority is to have the body removed and last rites performed. Compensation, where applicable, follows a slow bureaucratic process in which district officials write to the state government, which sanctions funds in its own time. Whether a protest occurred or not makes little difference in what is ultimately paid.A similar story played out in Sri Ganganagar’s Rawla area. In October 2024, Jasveer Singh Raisikh (38) died a day after being released on bail, following his arrest for disturbing the peace. His family alleged custodial violence and demanded a murder case, Rs 25 lakh compensation and a government job for his son. They placed the body outside the police station for two days before cremating it after assurances.More than a year later, nothing has moved. “The viscera report has still not come,” Jasveer’s brother Boota Singh said. “Villagers collected about Rs 2 lakh for us but we have received nothing from the government.”Why the practice survivesThe use of bodies as protest is not a recent phenomenon. In 1962, Communist Party of India leader and Hanumangarh MLA Shopat Singh famously brought the body of Kurdaram Dhanak to Jaipur and placed it at the gates of the Rajasthan Assembly, alleging custodial killing. The episode is documented in Jan Nayak of Struggles, written by former CPI(Marxist) MLA Hetram Beniwal.What has changed is the frequency.Psychologist Dr Manish Baghla of Tantia University sees the trend as rooted in social anxiety rather than strategy alone. “This is not just about death,” he said. “Unnatural deaths heighten fear and uncertainty. Families bargain with grief because they fear what comes next…medical debt, loss of income, social pressure to ‘secure something’ before the moment passes.”Jakhar is less sympathetic. “Disrespecting a body is wrong from every perspective, be it moral, legal or religious,” he said.Since 2023, the Rajasthan Respect for Deceased Bodies Act has been invoked only in a handful of cases. In September 2023, around 200 people were booked under the Act in Sri Ganganagar’s Mahiyanwali village for blocking traffic with a body after a road accident. More than two years later, the investigation is still incomplete.A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such cases often stall due to political pressure. “On paper, investigations remain ‘ongoing’. In reality, they are frozen or withdrawn.”Caught between grief, desperation and a slow-moving system, families continue to use the only leverage they believe works. The law exists. What is missing is the will to enforce it and a system that offers relief without forcing the dead to become instruments of negotiation.Cover photo - Villagers sit on a dharna with a dead body in front of the police station in Goluwala, Hanumangarh district (Photo: Balwinder Kharoliya)

Fear and loathing in lower courts: The bail edition

Surendra Mohan Sharma, a retired district and session judge in Rajasthan, discusses the issue of judges shying away from granting bail to undertrials — something that former CJI Chandrachud has repeatedly called out — and how it is putting a strain on jail infrastructure Jaipur, Rajasthan: On several occasions, the former Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud has raised the issue of lower courts not granting bail to undertrial prisoners in time. As a result, those eligible for bail from lower courts have to approach the High Court, while those not granted bail there have to move the Supreme Court.101Reporters spoke to Surendra Mohan Sharma, a retired district and session judge in Rajasthan, to learn why judges of subordinate courts are hesitant in granting bail. Sharma started his career as a lawyer in Hanumangarh. In 2001, he became an additional district and sessions judge under the Rajasthan Higher Judicial Service. His first posting was in Bhilwara, followed by postings as an additional district judge in Sriganganagar, Sojat and Bikaner. He was promoted as a district and sessions judge in 2005, and was posted in Merta City, Karauli, Jaipur City, Jaipur Rural and Bharatpur. Sharma retired from Bharatpur in October 2018.Agreeing with the former CJI’s view on bail rejection by lower courts, Sharma said that judges in lower courts are troubled by an “unknown fear”. “They are apprehensive that if they provide bail, someone might accuse them of taking money or criticise them over some other issue. Nowadays, people keep complaining, so judges get notices from the HC. Fearing this, they walk on the safe side and consider it appropriate to reject the bail. Ideally, what should happen is that the judge should give orders fearlessly, but they are bound by the social environment,” he explained. Mangla Verma, a human rights lawyer and legal research expert, concurred. “Lower court judges often operate with significant fear and risk-aversion, worried that granting bail may expose them to allegations of corruption or being seen as soft on crime.” She highlighted that media scrutiny in sensitive cases further heightens this anxiety. As a result, many judges choose the safer option of rejecting bail, assuming higher courts can correct the decision. “Nowadays, the media runs parallel investigations. Judges feel that courts will be dragged into unnecessary things,” Sharma echoed.Retired justice Surendra Mohan Sharma (Photos sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Compounding this, police routinely oppose bail, and judges’ dependence on case diaries and police views leads to frequent, almost automatic, bail denials at the lower courts. “Police too frequently claim that granting bail will hinder the investigation, prompting judges to err on the side of caution. Heavy administrative burdens and staffing shortages add to this hesitation. With too few judges handling an overwhelming number of cases, making swift bail decisions can feel risky, and postponing or denying bail becomes the easier path,” said Verma.When it comes to data on how many bail applications are accepted or rejected in lower courts across different states, Verma said that the district-wise data collected by the National Judicial Data Grid hasn’t been analysed much, but observations show no significant difference between the number of grants vs. rejections. This serves to highlight the fact that the directive on bail as a rule is often ignored. The data also says that over 2,62,000 bail applications are pending in district courts across India.Better infrastructure and processesSection 479 of the Indian Civil Security Code (BNSS), 2023, allows courts to grant bail to first-time offenders who have served detention for a period extending up to one-third of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence under that law. On this, Sharma said, “There is already a ruling of the Supreme Court that if someone has been in custody for one-third or half of the sentence, then he should be granted bail. Based on this order, at one time, so many bails were granted in many places that the jails started becoming empty.  Now it has been added as a section in the Act.""During my posting in Bharatpur and Karauli districts, I myself went to the jails there, took information and got many people who were imprisoned for a long time in petty cases out on personal bonds,” he added.   Not getting bail is not the only reason behind overcrowding in jails. There is a lack of infrastructure. Governments do not give proper budgets, and there is no expected improvement in jails. It has been so many years since these jails were built. “Just look at the Jaipur Central Jail. It was built during the time of the princely state and remains in the same condition to date. Not even four rooms were added to the building afterwards. Our jails have low capacity, but crimes have increased and hence the number of jail inmates.”“Not just that, even the number of judges is less compared to the population. Rajasthan HC has 50 judge postings, but the actual numbers never cross 35. The condition of the lower courts is even worse. The numbers are satisfactory only in a few districts. Moreover, there is a lack of infrastructure in all district courts. The governments do not have a budget for this. However, there is a proper infrastructure in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana,” Sharma explained. Apart from structural improvements in the lower courts, another solution to this crisis is to treat remand proceedings as the first and fundamental filter to incarceration, according to Verma. “Magistrates should start putting real thought at the remand stage itself into whether this person should be arrested or not in the first place.” She argued that remand hearings are the place where many unnecessary arrests and long detentions are created. Strengthening judicial scrutiny at remand, enforcing Arnesh Kumar/Section 41A inquiries and requiring policing to justify arrests would reduce needless custody and downstream bail pressure, she emphasised.Acting with empathy instead of fearAccording to Sharma, lower courts should understand that bail is a rule and jail is an exception because the SC has been repeatedly saying this. At the same time, the HCs in respective states should tell the lower courts to work fearlessly. “The HCs should assure the lower courts that they will help out if false complaints come up, or inform them that the false complaints against lower court judges will be ignored. If the HCs provide such protection, lower courts will become fearless,” he suggested. “The Supreme Court has also warned many times against the tendency of calling the judges of the district courts to the HC when complaints come up before it. This practice is against the Judicial Magistrate Protection Act,” Sharma noted. Asked about how he treated bail applications while in service, Sharma claimed that he had been fearlessly granting bail. “Although people have made complaints against me, I have given relief that one deserves while adopting a humane and sensitive approach. Wherever I have been posted, the accused did not have to go to the HC,” he said emphatically. While refusing to divulge the incidents where complaints were raised against him, Sharma said, “I cannot tell you about any particular case, but there are around four such cases in which people complained. This happens with every judge.”Sharma’s reflections point to a deeper malaise in India’s criminal justice system — one where fear, public perception, and institutional inertia often override judicial discretion. As lakhs of undertrials languish in overcrowded prisons for want of timely bail, the principle that “bail is the rule and jail the exception” remains more aspirational than real. Bridging this gap will require not just legal reform but also cultural change within the judiciary — one that empowers judges at the lowest levels to act without fear, backed by structural support from higher courts and governments alike. Only then can India begin to address the chronic injustice of pretrial incarceration that continues to erode faith in its justice system.This story was originally published as a part of Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.Cover Photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva

Forget reforms, children are fleeing juvenile homes in Rajasthan

Lack of positive environment, influence of gangs from outside make juvenile delinquents escape from correctional homes Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: Mukesh Kumar* was clueless until police showed up on his doorstep, wanting to know the whereabouts of his son Mahesh* (17). They told him that Mahesh had escaped from Hanumangarh Correctional Home on May 15. Mahesh was sent to the juvenile home following his arrest under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act a year ago. “Even if he is punished, one day he will be released and will return home. However, if he runs away from there, I do not know what will happen to him. I want my child to be safe as long as he stays in the correctional home. His safety should be ensured there. He should not be able to run away anywhere,” said Kumar, who runs a small grocery shop.   “I am worried if someone will mislead him to commit another crime or if he will meet with some accident,” Kumar added. Along with Mahesh, another three suspected child molesters escaped from the juvenile home. They asked for water from the guard and threw chilli powder at him, before running away. In the last four years, five such incidents have been reported in Hanumangarh juvenile home.  According to information gathered from various sources, many similar incidents have been reported from Sriganganagar, Churu, Bikaner, Alwar, Tonk, Ajmer, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Jhunjhunu, Banswara, Jhalawar, Karauli, Jodhpur, Pali, Sirohi, Nagaur and Jaipur. As many as 108 children have fled from Jaipur in the last eight years. Of them, 43 children escaped in just one month.The battle for supremacy between different groups of children has also turned fatal in Jaipur juvenile home, where a juvenile delinquent was murdered in May 2022. The boy died due to head injuries in an attack with an iron rod.  “It is natural for children to make mistakes in childhood. Such children are not called criminals, but are addressed as children in conflict with the law. They are prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act. It gives them a chance to improve. In the spirit of reform, children are kept in reform homes. They are provided with good food and counselling, but recent incidents suggest that reform homes need a lot of improvement,” said Advocate Subhash Parihar, a former member of the Juvenile Justice Board in Hanumangarh.Advocate Subhash Parihar, a former member of the Juvenile Justice Board in Hanumangarh (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)When contacted, Umed Ali, the Assistant Director at Jaipur headquarters of the Child Rights Department (CRD), refused to share any information on children fleeing juvenile homes in the state. This correspondent then sent an e-mail to the department secretary, who also holds the charge of commissioner, but without a reply.  What is even more worrying is that runaway kids are involved in murders and firing in public places. Police investigation revealed that three juvenile delinquents who fled from Jaipur on February 12 were involved in the murder of Sachin Kumar, a scrap businessman in Rohtak, Haryana. Police found out that notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was helping minors escape from juvenile homes so that they could be recruited into his gang.“After the murder, the children were planning to flee to Nepal. We got a tip-off, which helped us nab them at the Nepal border in the first week of March. Children are yet to be taken to Jaipur for interrogation and are in judicial custody in Haryana. More information will be available only after inquiry. Criminals are taking advantage of the immaturity of these children,” Amit Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), Jaipur, told 101Reporters.Jaipur Police claimed that a runaway child was involved in the firing at Zee Club in the state capital at the behest of Lawrence gang. The firing happened when attempts to extort Rs 5 crore from the club owner did not materialise.Correctional Home in Hanumangarh (Photo - Himanshu Midha, sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Alarm bellsThe tendency of children becoming 'dons' in the reform homes of Rajasthan was brought to the notice of the government a decade ago itself. Naval Khan, the then superintendent of child reform home in Alwar, sounded alarm bells, but his words were not taken seriously. Currently the Assistant Director of CRD in Tonk, Khan told 101Reporters that the situation has become worse now. “Children aged above 18 are mostly the culprits in juvenile homes. Many times, when a person is caught after his bail is rejected, he is already 25 or 26. Yet, orders are issued to keep him in a juvenile home. There are also children caught in serious crimes such as robbery and murder. Such children should be shifted to jails, but they are kept in juvenile homes only,” Khan elaborated.Child rights activist Lata Singh believed that the main reason for children running away was non-resolution of cases for a long time. Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, cases should be disposed of in six months, but it is taking years. Long confinement frustrates children. “Even delinquents aged 22 or 23 are lodged in juvenile homes. They take out their anger on small children,” she added.Taking suo motu cognisance of the incidents of escape, Rajasthan High Court (HC) on March 20 issued a notice to the Social Justice and Empowerment Department and the Jaipur Police Commissioner seeking factual reports and information on such incidents that happened in the last five years.When contacted, officials refused to provide information about the details of the report sent to the HC. However, Lata, who has been working with the police under Resource Institute for Human Rights, Jaipur, said the HC has been seeking such reports from time to time. “We have also been continuously raising our voice seeking improvement in the condition of juvenile homes. The government claims to be making efforts for comprehensive reforms, but these are only on paper. Nothing happens on the ground.”She said notorious gangs have gained access to juvenile homes. “Gangsters are instigating children to commit crimes by saying that they will get less punishment.”According to Lata, children have access even to drugs in reform homes. A video from Bharatpur's juvenile home went viral some time ago, in which children were seen consuming liquor, and smoking cigarettes and smack. In the video, children were saying that there was no shortage and everything they wanted was available. “There is a lack of a positive environment for reforming children in juvenile homes. Even though there are arrangements for good food, accommodation and smart TV, they are still hostages,” said Jitendra Goyal, Chairman, Child Welfare Committee, Hanumangarh.Trial and punishmentAs many as 3,887 children have been presented before the Juvenile Justice Board in Rajasthan under Sections 363 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of POCSO Act from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023, according to a government reply in the State Assembly. Of them, 850 were convicted, while 1,880 are under trial. The government has not given any information about the rest 1,157, but many of them would have been acquitted or released on bail. Of the 3,887 children, 276 were in the 12 to 14 age category, 1,126 children in the 14-16 category and 2,485 in the 16-18 category. Many of the children who were in the 16-18 age group are now more than 18 years old. “If a child above 12 years of age commits a crime, he can be prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. Under this Act, crimes are divided into three categories: minor, serious and heinous. The punishment of children is determined by the category of crime they have committed. Under the Act, a maximum punishment of three years is possible for children from 12 years up to the age of 16, even for heinous crimes," Mohammad Mushtaq Joiya, senior advocate, Hanumangarh, told 101Reporters.For those in the 16-18 age bracket, sentences can be different. After the Nirbhaya case, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, was amended to create a new category of juvenile offenders aged 16 to 18 under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Under this, for heinous crimes, children in the 16-18 age group can be tried as adults. Heinous crimes include those crimes in which a minimum punishment of seven years or more can be given. Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, reads: “Order that may not be passed against a child in conflict with law — no child in conflict with law shall be sentenced to death or for life imprisonment without the possibility of release, for any such offence, either under the provisions of this Act or under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) or any other law for the time being in force.” This means the child cannot be given the death penalty and cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Jitendra Goyal explaining the key suggestions (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Key suggestionsAccording to Jitendra Goyal, children in reform homes should be kept engaged through various types of training (for example computer training) and cultural education.   Deshraj Singh, a child rights activist talking about the incidents of fleeing juveniles (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Emphasising the need for creative activities, child rights activist Deshraj Singh, currently working with NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: “When incidents of fleeing and fights increased in the juvenile home of Alwar, we connected the children with yoga, computer training and studies. Things began to fall in place since then. Taking note, the then department principal secretary had issued instructions to carry out such activities in the entire state, but no steps were taken in this direction.”Rajasthan Child Protection Commission former chairperson Sangeeta Beniwal said the government should tighten security and monitoring in correctional homes to prevent children from fleeing and criminal elements from outside contacting them. “There is a shortage of security guards in correctional homes. All the security personnel are on contract. They do not care. If the security guards are employed permanently, they will have the fear of losing their job if they are negligent and will work responsibly.”“Children who commit crimes unknowingly and those with a persistent criminal background should be treated separately in reform homes. Both should be counselled separately. Children should be kept busy through awareness or skill development camps because an empty mind is the devil's workshop,” she added.Parihar, however, said that only police deployment could ensure a safe environment for children.  Hanumangarh CRD Assistant Director Prema Ram told 101Reporters that they were not able to work smoothly as most of the posts in the correctional home were vacant. “The superintendent post remained vacant for 30 months, and was filled only on March 24. At present, the posts of caretaker and lower division clerk are vacant. There are six guard posts, two of which are vacant due to non-availability of ex-servicemen. Guard appointments should be made permanent,” he detailed.However, Mukesh Kumar Meena, Additional Director, CRD Jaipur, said necessary steps were being taken to deal with the increasing incidents of fleeing. “The state government has sanctioned Rs 65 lakh for repair works. Home guards will be deployed for security. There is also a proposal to raise the height of the boundary walls of reform homes.”  *Names changed to protect privacyThis story was originally published as a part of Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.Cover Photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva

Why North Indian villages are questioning the tradition of parents sending shrouds for married daughters

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Some young people question the centuries-old custom while many families still find it difficult to abandon the practice. Hanumangarh Rajasthan/Bathinda Punjab:  Angrez Kaur (85), a resident of Malarampura village in Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan, passed away last month. Before her death, she made one final request. She wanted to be cremated in clothes bought by her family in her marital home, not those sent from her parents’ home, as tradition demands.Her son, Harjinder Singh Gill, said his mother had spoken about it often. “She said she had spent her whole life here, in this house, with her family,” he told 101Reporters. “Why should the final rites be paid for by others? Respecting my mother’s wishes, we bought the clothes ourselves for her last journey.”For generations across Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, it has been customary for a woman’s parents to send her kapde, the clothes she will be cremated in. In some communities, the parents also buy the shroud and the wood for the funeral. Sanjeev Agarwal (50) of Sangaria said, “In our society, the parents still pay for the clothes for the daughter or sister’s last moments, as well as the wood purchased for the funeral.” However, many families now refuse to accept the money.People question the centuries-old custom while many families still find it difficult to abandon the practice (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)In several villages, when a married woman dies young, her parents are expected to send not only her shroud but also the solah shringar — sixteen items of adornment applied before her cremation. These include bangles, sindoor, bindi, lipstick, and perfume — symbols of married life.This is traditionally seen as a last act of parental care, and refusing to accept these offerings is still considered disrespectful. But some families are now moving away from this customs. Gurdayal Kaur from Sangaria village explains the practice (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Changing timesKartar Kaur (82), a resident of Mansa village in Punjab's Bathinda district, wanted her body to be dressed in the clothes from her parents’ home. But her son, Bira Singh, disagreed. He said, “I won’t perform this ritual. My mother spent her entire life for us. Can I not buy clothes for her last journey?”Gurdayal Kaur (85), a resident of Sangaria, however explained that this practice has been followed for ages. “The parents of the women bring the final clothes. If they don’t, they are rebuked for not being able to bring clothes for their daughter,” she said.The ritual has always carried an emotional weight for both sides. For parents, it reflects their attachment to their daughter and their responsibility towards her until the end of her life. It shows that a daughter remains connected to her parents until her death. Yet many women now question it. Most of their lives are spent in the home they married into, so why should their final rites depend on a family they left behind decades ago?“It is symbolic,” said Dr Archana Godara, a sociology professor in Hanumangarh. “It comes from a time when women were considered outsiders in their marital homes, so the family of birth took responsibility till the very end. But women today live full lives in their marital homes. The symbolism no longer fits their realities.”Some villagers are beginning to express this discomfort more openly. In Haryana’s Chautala, Guddi Kaur (75) said she had discussed the matter with her family. “I told them my cremation should be done from the home I spent my life in,” she said. “I don’t want my children to depend on anyone else.”Still, resistance persists, especially among elders who see such changes as eroding social bonds. “These customs carry emotional and cultural meaning,” said Dr Bali Bahadur, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Punjab Central University, located in Ghudda village in Bathinda district. “It is not just about money or clothes… it’s about maintaining ties between two families. Breaking that can feel like breaking the relationship itself.”Kartar Kaur who wanted her body to be dressed in the clothes from her parents’ home with her family (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Open debateGurdayal Kaur (85) from Sangaria explained that people follow the custom since it has been around for so long — as long as she can remember. “The parents of the deceased bring the clothes for the last rites,” she said. “If they don’t, people talk they’re blamed for not being able to send clothes for their daughter.”For many the custom is painful to follow but difficult to abandon. Karmajit Kaur (65) from Malarampura, who lost her 30-year-old daughter to dengue, recalled how hard it was to fulfil that duty. “What could have been more tragic for us?” she said. “We not only bought her clothes but also lipstick, bindi, vermilion, bangles, soap and oil for her adornment, as per custom. I don’t know when or why such traditions began, but they should change now.”The debate has also found a place online. In 2023, Vanita Kasaniya (45), a poet from Abohar, wrote a short verse about the custom that spread widely on social media. She wrote, “Pooree umr sasuraal mein gujaaree, mainne phir bhee maayake se kafan mangaana mujhe achchha nahin lagata.” (“I spent my entire life in my in-laws’ home, yet asking for a shroud from my parental home doesn’t feel right to me.”)In some villages, priests and community leaders are beginning to acknowledge the shift. “There is no mention of this custom in any scripture,” said Pandit Mangilal Saraswat of  Sri Ganganagar district . “It is a social tradition, not a religious one. If people wish to change it, they can.”Jaswinder Singh (65) from Maur Mandi in Punjab, whose family followed these rituals after the deaths of his four sisters said: “It isn’t easy to go against society. People talk if you do things differently.” Cover photo - Karmajit Kaur from Malarampura village in Hanumangarh district (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)

Families in Rajasthan are pushing back against Mrityu Bhoj

Instead of spending lakhs on funeral feasts, some are redirecting the money to schools, libraries and community projects despite caste panchayats continuing to enforce the costly custom.Sriganganagar, Rajasthan: When Colonel Baldev Singh "Manav" Chaudhary’s father, Naina Ram, died in Devgarh village near Balesar in Jodhpur district last year, he and his younger brother Dharamaram made a decision that went against long-standing social custom. They chose not to organise a mrityu bhoj – the ritual funeral feast that often runs for days and feeds thousands of people. Instead, they redirected the money, about Rs 22 lakh, to fund libraries, schools, cow shelters and cremation grounds.“If we had continued to have feasts till the thirteenth day, it would have cost many lakhs to feed thousands of people,” Colonel Chaudhary said. “In 1982, my father had to mortgage household jewellery to arrange a funeral feast for my grandfather, despite a severe famine. It disrupted my education. From then on, I vowed to oppose this practice.”In Rajasthan, death rituals are accompanied by several customs, the most prominent being mrityu bhoj. For generations, the feast has been seen as a marker of prestige and honour. Ganga Ram Jakhar, former Vice Chancellor of Maharaja Ganga Singh University, explained that the custom dates back to feudal times, when it was known as kansa lag. In those days, the bereaved family would send food in bronze vessels to every household in the village. Later, the practice shifted to large gatherings at the family’s home, where the wealthy would feed thousands, which became a display of prestige. For poorer families, however, it became a compulsion.Jakhar noted that in western Rajasthan, a single mrityu bhoj can cost anywhere between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. In some cases, families host mourners from 10 to 20 surrounding villages.Villagers attend the inauguration of the grand entrance of a school in Devgarh, Jodhpur, built in memory of Colonel Baldev Singh Chaudhary's father instead of spending money on a funeral feast; (Below) A plaque affixed at the entrance condemns the practice of Mrityu Bhoj (Photos sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)The financial tollThe cost of these feasts has left generations in debt. Families mortgage jewellery, sell land, or borrow heavily to meet the expenses. Children often drop out of school when resources are diverted. Colonel Chaudhary, who campaigns against the custom, said that families already drained by medical expenses for elderly relatives are then pushed into debt by mrityu bhoj. “To repay this debt, children are forced into labour. It also encourages child marriage. In Marwar, more than half of such marriages are solemnised on the occasion of Terahvi Rasm,” he said.Jakhar added that the interest on loans taken for feasts is often unmanageable with ordinary incomes. “Families lose savings, sell land, and children miss school. The economic impact is devastating,” he said.In recent years, however, more families are making different choices. Dharampal Sihag of Pallu village in Hanumangarh district donated the amount he would have spent on a feast for social causes after his father’s death. In Ghana village of Jalore, Rooparam’s family donated Rs 5.25 lakh towards building a girls’ hostel. Retired Director General of Police SR Jangid donated Rs 9 lakh to educational institutions after his sister-in-law’s death in Barmer. In Payala Kalan, Balotra, Genaram’s family redirected their resources to education.Social pressure persistsDespite these examples, social pressure remains intense. Caste panchayats continue to enforce the practice, threatening boycotts and fines. In many villages, those who refuse to organise mrityu bhoj risk expulsion.Padmaesh Sihag, who leads an anti-mrityu bhoj campaign, explained that panchayats even provide loans to ensure families can host feasts. The gatherings last twelve days, with elaborate menus and along with the customary serving of opium and poppy husk. In Marwar, offering these intoxicants is an old tradition and is usually offered with food at feasts. Padmesh Sihag, an activist from the Marityubhoj Chodo Abhiyaan, appeals against the practice at a meeting in Hanumangarh (Photo sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Those who resist face punishment. Panchayats announce a “hukkaa-paani bandh”, which literally translates to cutting off hookah and water, but symbolically means a complete social boycott. Once such a declaration is made, the community severs all ties with the person. Cases of hukkaa-paani bandh are reported from districts including Jodhpur, Barmer, Balotra, Pali, Bharatpur, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Sirohi, Nagaur and Chittorgarh.In Balotra’s Maylawas village, Deeparam Dewasi said he and others who opposed the custom were expelled from their caste. “The panchayat announced that anyone who had contact with us would be fined fifty thousand rupees and a sack of millet,” he said. Panchayat members demanded fines of Rs 5 lakh each to reinstate them. Devasi claims that two of us paid the fine, while we are still facing the boycott. Meanwhile, caste Panch Gilaram denies these allegations. He said that it is true that Dewasi had stopped about a dozen funeral feasts, but they have not taken any action against him.Legal response, campaigns and social movementsNotably, Rajasthan was the first state to criminalise the practice with the Mrityu Bhoj Prevention Act, 1960. Yet the custom persisted, driven by social enforcement. This year, following petitions from residents of Jalore, Nagaur and Gotan, the Rajasthan High Court set up a five-member commission to investigate caste panchayats.Advocate Ramavtar Singh Chaudhary, a member of the commission, said they have visited ten districts so far. “We found that caste panchayats are brutally harassing people, forcing them to spend lakhs on funeral feasts, declaring hukkaa-paani bandh (social boycott) if they refuse, and even imposing arbitrary fines in marriage matters,” he said. The commission will submit its findings to the court.The court will likely ask the government to enact a separate law to deal with such cases, Singh Chaudhary said. But the state has been opposing the practice for many years. The first strong opposition to mrityu bhoj came from Nagaur about 25 years ago, eventually leading to statewide campaigns. Two decades ago, when Sihag from Hanumangarh refused to hold a feast for his uncle, his family opposed him, but his efforts sparked the “Leave the Mrityu Bhoj” campaign. Today, around 200 workers associated with it have persuaded 26,000 people across 17 districts to pledge against funeral feasts.Villagers take an oath not to organise funeral feasts in Hanumangarh district; (below) A similar initiative from Barmer (Photos sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Groups like Jaipur’s Johar Jagriti Manch are also spreading awareness. Villagers now not only refrain from hosting feasts but also approach the police when caste panchayats coerce them.However, Jakhar said that campaigns have changed attitudes in 20-30% of cases, but wider change requires people themselves to stop participating. “The biggest problem is those who go to eat,” he said. “If people stop attending, there will be no need to organise the feast.”Dr Archana Godara, a sociology professor in Hanumangarh, calls the feast a “deeply ingrained social evil.” While direct bans face resistance, she suggested encouraging alternatives. “If villagers are guided to spend the money on schools or social causes, change is more acceptable,” she said.As Sihag puts it, “This is not just a cultural issue. It is about economic and social improvement. If money goes to schools instead of feasts, everyone benefits.”This story is part of our series, 'Last Rights, Lost Rights,' about death in rural India and what it reveals about caste, class, migration, governance, and ecology. Cover image - In Lakhoniyo village in Barmer district, family members plant saplings in memory of their elderly mother, after donating the money intended for her mrityu bhoj (Photo sourced by Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)

Rajasthan's rural residents push back against smart meters over fear of prepaid bills

Villagers claim prepaid billing could hit the poor hardest, while officials insist the devices are safe and cost-effective.Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: In Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district, a government push to install smart electricity meters has met with resistance from residents. Touted as “modern” devices, these meters transmit real-time data, eliminate reading errors, and promise transparent billing, according to the Rajasthan Department of Information and Public Relations. The push to replace traditional meters with smart ones began in early July 2025 in Hanumangarh district, under the Central Government’s Restructured Distribution Area Scheme (RDSS), a plan initiated in 2023 during the then Congress-led state government to make smart meters mandatory across all districts.But the rollout has sparked widespread anger and anxiety among villagers, especially poor labourers and farmers. Women from various villages talking about their opposition to smart meters (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Wherever company employees from Genus Metering Communication Private Limited arrive to install the devices, they are turned away. The first protest erupted in Bihari Colony, Hanumangarh Junction, after just five smart meters were installed. Within days, resistance spread across villages and towns, bringing installation work to a standstill.Protesters have gathered outside power offices and government buildings, chanting slogans and demanding that the meters not be installed in their homes. During one demonstration outside the District Collectorate, this reporter witnessed hundreds chanting slogans in protest. Hanumangarh district has 4.6 lakh registered electricity connections, including 3.75 lakh domestic users. Despite awareness drives, only about 200 smart meters have been installed so far, according to Superintendent Engineer RS Charan of the Electricity Department.The main reason for opposition, villagers say, is fear of a shift to prepaid billing. Shivkumar Mandal (56), a labourer from Bihari Basti, said, “Right now they’re installing smart meters, but soon they’ll make them prepaid. We earn and eat daily. If we don’t get work for two days, how will we recharge electricity?”Notably, smart meters can operate in either postpaid or prepaid mode. Currently, all Hanumangarh connections are postpaid, and new meters are being installed in this mode. However, distribution companies can switch meters to prepaid remotely via software updates, just like changing a mobile phone connection from postpaid to prepaid.People of Bihari Basti protesting against the installation of smart meters (Photo - Vijay Midha)‘Electricity will no longer be a right’For Advocate Raghuveer Verma of the All India Agricultural Labour Union, the opposition to smart metres is more than just a technical concern, it is a threat to basic rights. He called it a socio-economic issue. “Smart meters will create a crisis for the poor, labourers, single women and the elderly. Once electricity becomes recharge-based, it will no longer be a right but a purchasable commodity,” he said. Installing them without public hearings or consent, he added, goes against the spirit of public representation.Chandrakala Verma, former state president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, warned that a shift to prepaid billing would disrupt daily life: “The moment electricity goes out, children’s studies, cooking and household work will come to a halt. It’s a direct attack on the quality of life of the poor.”Residents also point to the practical difficulties of paying upfront. Mandal, a warehouse loader who has lived in Bihari Basti for 40 years, said, “We somehow manage to pay monthly bills now. If delayed, we pay penalties or in installments. But with prepaid, electricity will stop the moment the balance runs out. Even a bulb won’t light.”Consumer rights groups have similar worries. Liaqat Ali, secretary of the Jodhpur-based Upbhokta Margdarshan Samiti, alleges that smart meters are a way for power companies to recover massive financial losses by overcharging consumers.According to data tabled in Rajasthan Assembly in January 2024, electricity corporations in Ajmer, Jodhpur and Jaipur — along with transmission and generation companies — recorded losses of Rs 8,824.43 crore, taking their total net loss to Rs 1,10,655 crore in 2022-’23 alone.“First, they’ll install smart meters, then convert them to prepaid. Consumption will drop, companies will buy less power, and homes that can’t recharge will be left in the dark,” Ali said. He blames the crisis on corruption and mismanagement, recalling that similar promises were made in 2002 when mechanical meters were replaced with electronic ones. “The meters work fine. The real issue is mismanagement. Companies blame the meters to cover their failures.”Reports from other districts of inflated bills after smart meter installation have deepened distrust. Protesters in Hanumangarh often cite the case of Amiruddin Rangrez from Jobner in Jaipur district, who received a Rs 1.26 lakh bill for a locked house. Energy Minister Heeralal Nagar later said it was due to a wrong reading, not a fault in the meter. Labourers and farmers from various villages talking about their opposition to smart meters in Hanumangarh (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)‘Postpaid gives us breathing space’At present, all electricity connections in Hanumangarh are postpaid. Residents said this system gives them crucial breathing room: after receiving a bill, they have time to arrange money before the payment deadline. If they cannot pay in full, they can often negotiate with officials to pay in installments.Leelawati (60) from Dabli Rathan village, compared the prepaid model to phone recharges. “We have phones but often can’t recharge due to lack of money. The phone stays off for days. The same will happen with electricity,” she said. Kamla Meghwal (41) of Chak 34 STG, drew a parallel with the Ujjwala Yojana cooking gas scheme. “The government stopped kerosene, claiming everyone would get LPG. But poor women still burn firewood. Now they’re preparing to cheat us again in the name of ‘electricity for all,” he said. Dhannaram Nayak of Urmul Khejari Sansthan, an NGO in Nagaur’s Jhadeli village added that the usage data from smart metres is available only through mobile apps, SMS or websites, which are all mediums inaccessible to large sections of the rural, elderly and illiterate population. He also said there is an increased possibility of cyber fraud. “Scammers look for opportunities. Once meters are installed everywhere, they will start calling people, extracting personal data under false pretenses. The government must act cautiously,” Nayak added.  Consumer rights groups also point to the potential for tariff hikes alongside smart meter rollouts. Ali said that power companies in Rajasthan have already proposed raising the lowest slab from Rs 4.75 per unit to Rs 6, and increasing the fixed monthly service charge for heavy users from Rs 450 to Rs 800, a 77% jump.Even if such changes were to be challenged, activists say the process is stacked against ordinary people. Sanjay Arya, president of the Consumer Protection Committee in Sangaria, said filing objections before regulatory bodies is “almost like fighting a case in court”. Petitions run into hundreds of pages of technical data that most people cannot understand without a lawyer, which means paying fees, he said. With the state regulatory commission based in Jaipur and the national commission in Delhi, residents would also need to bear travel, stay, and food costs. “Companies have legal teams,” Arya said. “Citizens have neither the time, money nor resources.”Advocate Raghuveer Verma, leader of the Khet Mazdoor Union (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Public being misled: OfficialsHowever, ​the Electricity Department’s Superintendent Engineer Charan said smart meters would ensure accurate billing, allow mobile-based usage tracking, and offer a 15-paise-per-unit discount on prepaid usage. The devices, he added, are tested in national laboratories and meet Indian standards. To build trust, some areas will initially have both traditional and smart meters installed side by side for comparison.Addressing concerns about a shift to prepaid billing, Charan said it had been proposed but would not be implemented immediately. He added that smart meters would not harm consumers and attributed the opposition to “wrong propaganda”. “What is the harm if electricity connections become prepaid in the future?” he said. “Today, people pay for everything in advance in the market, what difference does it make if we pay for electricity the same way?”Cover photo - People of Bihari Basti protesting against the installation of smart meters in Hanumangarh (Photo - Vijay Midha)

How Longwala reimagined rural governance

Once plagued by poor sanitation and scarce resources, this Rajasthan village transformed through local leadership, community willpower, and smart planning.Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: “I got married here when I was just 13. Back then, Longwala didn’t even have proper drains,” Anganwadi worker Sanjana Sain told 101Reporters. “Today, it feels like I live in a new village.”Even five years ago, Longwala village in Pilibanga tehsil of Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district had no working sub-health centre, few toilets, and problematic drainage issues.Today, it has 35 CCTV cameras, a solar-powered panchayat office, a new overhead tank for water supply, a fully equipped gym, and the National Panchayat Award under its belt.The turnaround began in 2020, when coming from the dalit community Sunil Kranti, a local youth leader and founder of the Yuva Kranti Dal, was elected sarpanch—even though the seat was reserved for the general category. Longwala, a village with a population of around 7,000, had an annual panchayat budget of approximately Rs 1 crore when Kranti became the sarpanch. The village is about 23 km from the Hanumangarh district headquarters and 5 km from the Pilibanga Panchayat Samiti.Kranti, along with a team of “motivated” panchayat members and officers began to tackle basic challenges first like sanitation, healthcare, and water management. One of the first things the Sarpanch did after being elected was to study successful panchayat models. He visited several developed villages in neighbouring Punjab to understand how they had planned, mobilised communities and leveraged government schemes.In 2023, Kranti and his team’s efforts led to Longwala being honoured with the National Panchayat Award for developing self-reliant infrastructure.“We managed to bring some changes in the village because we focussed on works that people wanted to get done,” he added. Tulsi and Suman, women from the village (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Blueprint for changeLongwala village is home to about 1,200 families, half of whom belong to Scheduled Castes like Nayak, Meghwal, and Majbi Sikh. The rest include Kumhar, Jat Sikh, Nai, Brahmin, and Bania communities. Kranti said that the earlier Sarpanches and officials struggled with fund mobilisation due to a lack of awareness. However, he and his team visited the Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishad offices to understand which schemes exist, what kind of documentation is needed and what could be used where. This research helped him scale up the budget from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore annually, by applying to multiple government schemes across departments.People working out at the village gym (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Participative planningTo get residents involved, Kranti used pressing issues to encourage community discussion. His first major Gram Sabha focused on water drainage, a chronic problem in the village. “People were troubled by this. When we organised a Gram Sabha to solve it, they came in large numbers,” he said. Four to five hundred residents began showing up regularly. “In the next meeting, we raised the issue of Gaushala. In every meeting, some important issue like this was highlighted,” Kranti added. This momentum carried into the Gram Panchayat Development Plan, where villagers began to actively propose and prioritise local works. He also launched a “Hathai” programme for informal public dialogue. He also reorganised Longwala into seven named zones, distinct from its 12 administrative wards. Each zone, encompassing areas from one or more wards, now has a unique identity, encouraging enhanced community participation.Gram Panchayat of Longwala (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Smart streetsCleanliness and sanitation saw immediate improvement. Regular cleaning by the Panchayat, modern public toilets at the bus stand and schools, and a new drainage system turned two previously polluted ponds near the school into functional water bodies. A new overhead water tank ensured supply, and borewells were installed for rainwater drainage.Infrastructure expanded rapidly: a Rs 1.25 crore tar road to Chak SGW shortened the commute to Hanumangarh by 12 km, 35 CCTV cameras were installed on main streets, and every lane now has streetlights, greenery, and Reinforced Cement Concrete benches. A grand panchayat gate was built, and roads were paved and named.Education and childcare facilities received new classrooms, boundary walls, and a modern Anganwadi. A fully equipped gym and model bus stand—complete with fans, toilets, and shaded seating—were added for public convenience. In Sada Singh Wala locality, community toilets, an Amrit Sarovar, and a smaller secondary waiting area were also constructed.Public land encroachments—especially on walkways and a 3-bigha playground—were resolved through consensus-building. Boundaries were marked, and farmers voluntarily pulled back their fences.Longwala’s panchayat office is now fully solar-powered and digitised. Twenty-five homes already use solar panels, and streetlights are being connected to the solar grid. Under the National Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Longwala has been chosen to host a Panchayat Learning Center, with LED screens, CCTV, a sound system, projectors, Wi-Fi, and a mini-library.Beyond physical upgrades, Kranti also focused on economic empowerment. Many villagers expressed interest in animal husbandry and dairy businesses. The panchayat arranged loan camps in coordination with nationalised banks, enabling many to secure business loans.Women were encouraged to form Self-Help Groups (SHGs), with three already receiving loans through Rajivika. These groups now run beauty parlours, tailoring shops, and grocery stores. Several more are in the pipeline. Chandan Singh showing a lane in the village (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)SetbacksThe transformation wasn’t without controversy. Two years ago, a newly built panchayat office was found to be located on a school playground. The High Court ordered its demolition and fined Kranti and the Village Development Officer Rs 50,000.Kranti, the Sarpanch at the time of the alleged misuse of power and is now the appointed administrator, appealed to the Supreme Court. In August 2023, the court overturned the demolition order, thereby saving public funds. However, the Supreme Court simultaneously held Kranti and the then Village Development Officer responsible for arbitrary use of powers, ordering them to jointly pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh. This amount was subsequently recovered from them and deposited into the account of the school whose playground had been illegally occupied. The Supreme Court further emphasized that gram panchayats must always represent the public interest and are not permitted to occupy parks or playgrounds for infrastructure projects without strictly following legal procedures.Sanjana Sen and children at the Anganwadi (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)Model village With a consistent approach and participatory planning, Longwala is no longer just a village. It’s a case study in grassroots governance. The Rajasthan government sent 100 newly appointed development officers to study its model, and over 50 sarpanches and officials from Jammu & Kashmir have visited.Sandeep Kumar, coordinator of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in Jammu, noted that such facilities are typically found in urban municipalities—not rural panchayats. Village Development Officer Sushil Siddh shared that once development began, public trust soared. Ravindra Sharma, Block Development Officer from Pilibanga, said, “Villages with active representatives consistently see more progress.”Locals like Indrajit Singh and Chandan Singh said that they never imagined officials from across the country would visit their village which is now nationally renowned. Kranti said applying for awards is a conscious decision. He explained that receiving a national award changes the perception of governments, district administrations, and the Panchayat Raj department towards the winning panchayat. “Officials help such Panchayats to apply for raising funds for development. Our Panchayat has benefited in this way,” he told 101Reporters.Cover Photo - Villagers at the bus stand (Photo - Amarpal Singh Verma, 101Reporters)