Rights panel focuses on prison inmates with HIV and HIV/TB

The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) has asked the additional director general of police (prisons) and an expert committee to submit reports on

The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) has asked the additional director general of police (prisons) and an expert committee to submit reports on healthconditions of Arthur Road and Byculla jails, focusing on inmates suffering from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV-tuberculosis (HIV/TB).

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Nadeem Divekar, an activist whose petition led to the MSHRC seeking information on HIV patients at the two jails, said “Prison conditions are often breeding grounds for onward transmission of HIV infection. Sharing needles for drugs use and rape are persistent issue with prison environments with increase risk of HIV transmission.”

On November 15, MSHRC directed the additional director general of police (prisons) to submit a report and asked the vice chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University to constitute a team of experts who would probe Divekar’s claims. The committee will submit its report by February 2020.

HT through a series of Right To Information (RTI) applications has procured data from Mumbai District Aids Control Society (MDACS) which shows that the rate of infection in Mumbai’s two major jails on Arthur Road and in Byculla is almost .87% compared to the national rate of.22%.This makes thousands of HIV-negative prisoners vulnerable to the infection as unprotected sex and usage of drugs is common in these over-crowded jails, said health and human right activists.

Hussain Sheikh (name changed) was 21-year-old when he was arrested in 2012 in a drug peddling case. He was sent to Arthur Road jail for two-years of imprisonment. He says he was sexually abused inside the jail and was infected with HIV when he left jail in 2015. He is current on antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment to control the progress of the disease.

“In a cell that has a capacity of 10, they would keep over 60 prisoners. There is consensual or forceful sex without any protection,” said Sheikh who works in shop in Kurla and often volunteers with People Living with HIV Network.

The response to the RTI application showed that between 2015 and 2019 (August), as many as 120 prisoners have been identified with HIV-infection at Byculla Jail. While from 2016 to 2019 (August) another 58 prisoners have been diagnosed with the infection in Arthur Road jail. MDACS don’t have the data of 2015 from the latter as responded in the RTI. Byculla jail which has a capacity of 200 beds has conducted more number of HIV screenings than Arthur Road Jail which has the capacity of 804 beds. This again highlights improper screening of prisoners at the central jail which always has over 3,000 inmates due to overcrowding.

HIV is a virus that damages the human immune system. The immune system helps the body fight against infections. This makes the body more susceptible to various kinds of infections. Latent TB is more likely to advance to TB disease in people with HIV. According to ‘India TB Report 2019’, HIV co-infection or co-morbidity with TB in India was nearly 50,000 out of a total 2,155,894 cases.

“These jails are always 300% overcrowded. In such a congested area, prisoners living with low immunity would certainly get infected with TB,” said Dr Rajendra Nanavare, former superintendent of Sewri TB Hospital.

Though, in 93% of the cases, people get the infection due to unwanted sex, jails do not provide condoms to prisoners despite many inmates complaining of sexual abuse.

“I have often counselled young prisoners who got raped or sexually violated. But the jails refuse to provide condoms which would prove that sex among men is common and they see it as a taboo,” said Eldred Tellis from Sankalp, an NGO working for drug rehabilitation.

As per the rules, when a new prisoner is taken to jail, he needs to undergo compulsory HIV testing immediately. But due to lack of technicians or unavailability of police on time, this often gets delayed.

“Even though these two jails have ART centres, often police don’t inform the officers. In the meantime, if anyone uses an infected syringe or has sex, the virus can get transferred,” said an official at Arthur Road jail.

Divekar also added that added that often the supply of medicines to the prisoners gets interrupted which leads to the development of drug resistance.

The data accessed through RTI also shows that almost 17% of the identified HIV-infected prisoners don’t take the compulsory ART treatment as they get released from jail. This further increases the chances of infection among others.

Dr Padmaja Keskar, director of MDACS, she said, “We follow up with prisoners who don’t start their treatment as they get released from jail and enrol them for ART treatment. They are then recorded in the list of the nearby ART centres.”