Bhubaneswar: Despite a drop in the overall count of prisoners in state jails, prisons in Odisha still hold the largest number of inmates suffering from psychological ailments besides Uttar Pradesh in 2018.
The data revealed through the recently released ‘Prisons Statistics India, 2018’ by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded a nearly 14 per cent decline in the number of mentally-ill prisoners in state jails.
As per the PSI data for 2018, as many as 677 mentally-ill prisoners have been kept in various jails across the state as compared to 787 such inmates in 2017. The number in 2018 comprised 348 convicts and 329 undertrials who have been suffering from mental disorders.The jails in the state had a population of 16,501 in 2018 as against 15,223 in 2017. The percentage of mentally-ill prisoners dropped to 4.1 per cent in 2018 from 5.16 per cent in 2017.
However, the state still tops the list in the country in terms of percentage of mental-ill prisoners. Some big states with much higher prison population have recorded much less number of mentally-ill inmates in 2018.
Uttar Pradesh has recorded 1,174 (1.12 per cent) such prisoners out of the total 1,04,011, Maharashtra recorded 562 (1.56 per cent) out of a total prison population of 35, 884. Similarly, Bihar recorded 115 mentally-ill prisoners out of a total of 38,685 prisoners while Madhya Pradesh had 574 such prisoners out of a total of 42,057 prisoners 2018.
The deplorable situation of prisoners can be further gauged from a comparison of the availability of medical staff and infrastructure in state jails. The actual sanctioned strength of medical staff in the state is 184 including doctors, pharmacists while the number was 128 in 2016 and 115 in 2017. The current statistics by NCRB saw a further decline in the number to 111 in 2018.
Similarly, the number of resident doctors witnessed a drop over last three years from 2016 to 2018. The reports revealed that as many as 59 resident doctors were deployed in various jails of the state in 2016 as against the sanctioned strength of 94. The number further dropped to 45 and 42 in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Interestingly, Odisha has not added a single new ambulance vehicle in the past few years. There are only three ambulances available in 90-odd jails of the state which are much less in comparison to other states barring some small north eastern states.
Speaking to Orissa POST, a top source in the directorate of prison and correctional services of Odisha said that most of the jails in the state have no doctors for medical counselling. The CAG report released in 2018 also observed that there was no psychiatric doctor and the pharmacists were treating patients.
He lamented that regular doctors are being withdrawn from jails by the government. The prisons department has been instructed to post doctors on a contractual basis. Similarly, the remuneration has also been very low so only homoeopathy and ayurvedic doctors are agreeing to work on contractual basis.
Taking note of the poor medical services in jails, Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra had recently asked the authorities to take steps to engage allopathic doctors in Choudwar circle jail.