Mumbai: The elderly mother of Raghavendra Dasari from Ambernath had lost all hopes of managing to arrange the bail amount needed to secure the release of her son, who was languishing in jail for four-and-a-half-years in an auto-rickshaw theft case. It was Global Care Foundation that finally came to the aid of Dasari's mother, who works as a maid and struggled to manage the bail fund. “I had lost the hope that I would ever get to go home again, but then this organisation came to my help. I was able to go back to my family after four-and-a-half-years,” said Dasari.
Concerned over the “lack of legal aid and awareness” often resulting in incarceration of the underprivileged, Global Care Foundation has helped more than 500 undertrial prisoners walk out of jails by paying their bail amount in the last six years. The 25-year-old Govandi resident, Tauhid Shaikh, is one among them. In June 2023, Shaikh landed in jail after his mother-in-law accused him of stealing her gold ornaments. Driving a rented rickshaw, he barely managed to make ends meet. Hence, arranging the bail amount was a shattered dream.
Shaikh's Bail Approved Against Surety Of Rs 50,000
The court rejected Shaikh’s bail application thrice and later approved it against a surety of Rs50,000. “Ultimately, the court reduced the amount to Rs15,000, but we had exhausted all our savings in this matter. My wife then learned about Global Care Foundation, which helps people like me to come out on bail. After she contacted them, the NGO paid the entire amount and I was able to get out of jail in February this year,” said an elated Shaikh.
Another liberating story is of Dhanashri Bhosale, who met a con, while trying to find a stable job for her husband. The Thane resident not only lost Rs3 lakh to the fraudster who duped her on the pretext of a government, but also ended up as the cheater's accomplice in the eyes of her neighbours. Believing the con, Bhosale had introduced the person to her neighbours, who were defrauded as well. “My husband was not earning and that agent fled with all our money. The locals filed a case of fraud and cheating against me. If Global Care Foundation had not supported me, I don’t know what would have happened to my two children,” Bhosale said.
Between 2020 and 2023, the jail occupancy climbed from 118% to 131% across India. Out of the total 5.73 lakh prisoners, a whopping 75% of them are undertrials. To decrease the overburdening of prisons and help the first-time offenders get a chance to change their life for better, Global Care Foundation has been helping such under-trial prisoners get released on bail. It also organises legal aid sessions, legal and social awareness programmes and paralegal training programmes.
Over 550 Prisoners Helped By The NGO
Since 2018, the NGO has helped 552 non-habitual undertrial prisoners walk out of different jails in Mumbai and Pune. In the last year itself, it spent Rs27 lakh to secure the 'freedom' of 214 undertrials, underscoring the 'innocent until proven guilty' adage. Global Care Foundation NGO Founder and Managing Trustee Abid Ahmed said, “The main intent (behind the initiative) is to explore the world of crime prevention as I felt a great lack of legal aid and awareness in the society. This has caused a huge underprivileged population, especially from minorities, to land up in jails. These undertrials are first-time 'offenders' who have been imprisoned for years for the want of mere Rs10,000-15,000.”
