Uttar Pradesh may not have an impressive literacy rate but it accounts for the largest number of graduate and post graduate convicts and undertrials.

A report prepared by the National Crime Records Bureau shows that the largest state of the country has 1,048 convicts who are graduates, which is higher than in any other states.

Punjab has the second highest number (651) of graduate convicts followed by Madhya Pradesh (559).

Uttar Pradesh also leads in the category of post-graduate convicts with 187 followed by Madhya Pradesh (180), Rajasthan (130) and Chhattisgarh (124).

Among the 1,08,572 convicts, 31,775 (29.3 per cent) are illiterate and 49,997 (46 per cent) are educated below Class X.

NCRB prison statistics for the year 2005, published recently, also show that 72.5 per cent (78,718) of the convicts were Hindus while 18 per cent (19,561) were Muslims.

Twenty nine percent (31,220) belonged to the OBC category while 20.8 per cent (22,052) were from Scheduled Castes and 15. 4 per cent (16,331) were from Scheduled Tribes.

Uttar Pradesh, which has a literacy rate of 57 per cent, also ranks first in the list of graduate (2,029) and post graduate (388) undertrials. Bihar has the second highest number of graduate undertrials (922) followed by Punjab (858), Madhya Pradesh (664) and Delhi (654).

In the post graduate convicts list, Madhya Pradesh (199) is second followed by Jharkhand (178) and Rajasthan (134).

Statistics also revealed that Nagaland prisons lodge largest number of convicts (51.3 per cent) belonging to other states followed by Uttaranchal (34.6 per cent) and Delhi (27.7 per cent).

West Bengal reported "significant" number of convicts belonging to foreign countries accounting for the highest 11 per cent of the total convicts of the state, the NCRB report said.

Madhya Pradesh has accounted for the highest number of 14,391 convicted prisoners followed by Uttar Pradesh (13,284) and Maharashtra (9,229).

The "Open Jails" in Maharashtra have reported higher number of convicts (559) followed by Rajasthan (410), Uttaranchal (304), Andhra Pradesh (290) and Kerala [Images] (262).

The jails exclusively meant to lodge women prisoners have reported population of women convicts in Tamil Nadu (243) followed by Andhra Pradesh (184), Rajasthan (167), Uttar Pradesh (125) and Delhi (117).

Out of the 3,58,368 inmates, 1,904 prisoners were mentally ill.

The number of inmates suffering from mental illness kept in jails were considerably large in Orissa (317), Delhi (189), Madhya Pradesh (180), Maharashtra (171) and West Bengal (115).

The country's prisons also lodges 1,390 foreigners, including 141 women. The highest number of foreign convicts was reported from Uttar Pradesh (701) followed by West Bengal (201) and Maharashtra (178).

Foreign undertrials count to 2,342, including 473 women. Bengal has 11,176 such prisoners followed by Maharashtra (447) and Delhi (261).