India, Dec. 31 -- In December 2020, as the world grappled with unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines, another form of inequality was exposed inside India's prisons. A journalist, Sukanya Shantha, reported how caste, outlawed by the Constitution, still dictated every aspect of prison life - who scrubbed floors and cleaned toilets, who ate first, and who slept in which barracks.

Upper-caste prisoners were given better-quality food while lower-caste prisoners received inferior meals. Members of de-notified tribes were branded "habitual offenders", punished more harshly, and denied basic rights. Prison registers listed caste as a matter of record, and manuals sanctioned segregation and menial labour. The West Bengal prison manual specified tha...