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Free medicines, consultation to UP prisoners’ kin at their doorstep
UP prisons headquarters spokesman Santosh Kumar Verma said four prisons in the state are now providing medical assistance at doorsteps to prisoners’ parents and family members, who are seriously ill or suffering from Covid-19 infection.
Elderly parents of Sheru Nishad, a prisoner in Naini Central Jail, Prayagraj, were sick and unattended at their home, without medical consultation or medication for the past many months. However, they were visited by a jail warder on Sheru’ request a few days ago. The warder arranged his parents’ video consultation with the doctors in Naini jail and also handed them over a free medicine packet. Later, Sheru was made to talk to his parents over the phone from the jail.
Similarly, Chandan, who is lodged in Sonbhadra district jail for the past 20 months, was worried for his old mother, who stays alone in her village. His mother suffers from lung problems and can’t visit the doctor due to her old age. The authorities of Sonbhadra district jail send a warder to her house, who gave her a packet of medicine free of cost after arranging a telephonic medical consultation with a doctor for her.
UP prisons headquarters spokesman Santosh Kumar Verma said four prisons in the state are now providing medical assistance at doorsteps to prisoners’ parents and family members, who are seriously ill or suffering from Covid-19 infection. “We have provided medicines for Covid-19 positive people on the same lines,” he added.
He said this service was first started at Prayagraj’s Naini Central Jail apart from the district jails at Sonbhadra, Firozabad and Mathura. The facility for prisoners to call their family members over phone started last year at all jails after in person meetings were stopped to curb Covid-19 infections among prisoners.
Verma said over 40 such in-house calls have been made so far since last week of April. He said the jail authorities are planning to extend the medical assistance service for prisoners’ families at all 71 jails across the state by setting up a dedicated and trained team of jail personnel for the purpose.
Meanwhile, the jail authorities are also focused on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness to curb any infection in the state jails where over 1.10 lakh prisoners remain lodged at a time. At present, 45 temporary jails are operational to quarantine new prisoners for two weeks before they are shifted to permanent jails.
Verma said at least 16,611 inmates have been infected with Covid-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in April 2020. 14,882 of these have recovered leaving 1,722 active cases in UP jails, including 353 in 71 permanent jails and 1,230 in 45 temporary jails . As many as 111,882 prisoners are lodged in UP jails, including 108,892 prisoners in 71 permanent jails and 2,990 inmates in 45 temporary jails.
