NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA V. c) The Last meeting on the Amendment to Prison Act was held on 10 October, 2018 where it was decided that the final draft send by Dr. Nirmaljit Singh Kalsi, Addl. Chief Secretary, (Jails) Home Affairs & Justice, Govt. of Punjab should be forwarded to CHRI for comments/ inputs. Subsequently the Commission received comments and suggestions from CHRI, which was then sent to Dr. Kalsi for scrutiny. d) Later, Shri Kripa Shankar Saroj, Principal Secretary, Govt. of Punjab sent the corrected final draft of the Prison Act, 1894 to the Commission on 08.02.2019. The final draft will be communicated to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Prisons Reforms Follow-up of National Seminar of Prison Reforms F. a) The National Human Rights Commission organised a two-day National Seminar on Prison Reforms in New Delhi from the 13-14 November, 2014. The aim of the seminar was to assess the status of the implementation of the recommendations made in its earlier seminar on the subject held on the 15 April, 2011 and to discuss what further steps would require to be taken to improve prisoners’ condition and prison administration with a human rights perspective. The recommendations that emerged from the Seminar were sent to all States/UTs calling for an Action Taken Report. b) Action Taken Report has been received from all the States except the States of Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UT of Lakshadweep are still awaited despite reminder. The Commission is pursuing with the State Govt. c) The recommendations of the seminar are also available in the NHRC’s website. Research Initiatives The Commission has been engaging in administering various socially impactful and relevant researches pertaining to Bonded Labour, Child Labour, Criminal Justice System, Rights of Minorities and Terrorism. In this regard, the Division calls for research proposals from credible candidates/institutions and scrutinize them. This is a continuous process carried out every year by the Division and the shortlisted deserving studies are finally considered by the Commission. The following are the ongoing research topics: (1) The Commission approved research proposal titled ‘An Empirical Study on the Status of Undertrial Prisoners in Gujarat Central Jails’ by Prof. (Dr.) Purvi Pokhariyal, Director, Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on 14.09.2018. The duration to complete the research project is nine months with a financial assistant of Rs. 1, 15,000/-. The area/ coverage of study: Four major Gujarat Jails: Sabarmati Central Jail, Vadodara Central jail, Rajkot Central jail & Lahore Central Jail (Surat). Purpose of study: To conduct an empirical research study on the status of undertrial prisoners in the prisons with focus on their health, growing number of suicides and 78 ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19