Lack of psychiatrists bedevils mentally ill prisoners

KOLKATA: Lack of psychiatrists in Bengal prisons is taking a toll on the mental health of 400 odd mentally ill prisoners lodged in various prisons across the state, according to jail officials.

According to the recent data, there are 404 convicts, who are suffering from mental problems and are in regular need of psychiatric treatment.

"There are 404 convicts who are having psychiatric problems. Out of these 164 are convicts and the rest are undertrials," a senior official of state correctional department told PTI.

"We presently don't have any psychiatrist on our payroll and neither we have anyone under contract. We do face problems at times. After much deliberations and persuasion it has been decided that we will recruit someone on contract at least for central jails," the official told PTI.

Presently the Dum Dum Central Jail has recruited one psychiatrist on a contractual basis.

There are around 57 correctional homes in the state.

This included six central correctional homes, 33 subsidary correctional home and 12 district correctional homes.

"Apart from Dum Dum Central Jail, there are five other correctional homes in the state. We will recruit five other psychiatrist on a contractual basis," said the official.

According to the senior jail official, whenever a convict or an undertrial lodged in jail needs psychiatric treatment, he is taken to nearby hospitals for treatment and then again brought back to the prison.

"Whenever there is a need of psychiatric treatment we take them to a nearby hospital for treatment. Although we have three-four clinical psychologist for emergency cases," the official said.

When contacted state Correctional Affairs minister Haider Aziz Safwi said, "Yes we are thinking of setting up a altogether separate correctional home for convicts with mental problems in Purulia very soon. It will be helpful for us to tackle the situation in case of emergency,".

Various NGOs working on Prison Reform Programme feels that jail officials should link up with NGOs working on mental health to ensure proper care and treatment for the convicts.

"It is a major issue that there are no psychiatrists. If there is problem all of a sudden you have to depend on doctors from outside," said Madhurima Dhanuka, Consultant, Prisons Reform Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said.

"Jail officials should link up with NGOs working on mental health to ensure proper care and treatment for the convicts," Dhanuka said.

The correctional homes in Bengal are facing a grim situation in case of jail doctors similarly.

Earlier the sanctioned strength of regular doctors in correctional homes across Bengal was 42, which has now come down to four.

"We now depend on 36 contractual doctors we have with us, both whole time and part time basis,"the official said.