Mental health plan for jail inmates

Chandigarh, November 9

Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh today launched a mental health intervention programme for inmates in state jails.

While launching the programme during a state-level function held here, Balbir Singh said the initiative would provide screening, counselling and referral services to prisoners in four jails of Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Patiala and Amritsar.

The minister said this project would soon be implemented across all jails.

Counsellors have been recruited in these centres with the support of the World Health Partners, who will conduct counselling with the aim of improving the mental health of detainees and prisoners, the minister said in an official release.

Underlining the mental health issues faced by prisoners, he said suicide was a major consequence of mental illness among inmates.

A Supreme Court-appointed committee in its latest report has stated that suicide is a major cause of unnatural deaths among prisoners in India.

The committee said out of 817 unnatural deaths in prisons, 660 were suicides, which is “quite alarming”.

The minister said out of 25,000 prisoners in jails, 14,000 prisoners were lodged there under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

“All are not smugglers, but they are in jails due to drug addiction. Instead of sending these addicts to prisons, if they are sent to de-addiction centres, the prison load can be reduced considerably,” he said.