BENGALURU:The Bengaluru Central Prison in Parappana Agrahara has seen two cases of suicides in a little over three months of this year. Lack of proper measures to identify and counsel those inmates suffering from depression is said to be one of the reasons for this.
In February, the state government informed the Karnataka High Court that 48 unnatural deaths of prisoners were reported in various jails in the state since 2012 to October 2017. Out of them, 31 were suicide cases. In the last 10 years, the state has seen 60 suicide cases in various prisons.
Sources in the prison department reveal that depression, guilt, helplessness, loneliness and fear of being ostracised are the major reasons that drive jail inmates to take the extreme step.“It’s quite natural for anyone to slip into depression once they are put within four walls. Some undertrial prisoners will be normal when they enter jail for the time-being. But, when they are convicted, they lose all hope and slip into depression. As years pass, some develop serious psychological issues, and some end up killing themselves,” an official said.
The authorities’ apathy in appointing sufficient number of psychiatrists is also one of the reasons why jail birds cannot cope with depression. A senior official in the prison department admitted that there was just one psychiatrist at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, which houses around 4,000 inmates.
Former DG & IGP ST Ramesh had recommended that one counsellor should be appointed for every 500 inmates when he was heading the prison department. But it has not been implemented even today.“Some years ago, NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences) had come up with a project of screening all inmates, identifying inmates with high-risk symptoms, maintaining their reports and giving appropriate treatment on a regular basis. But, it did not work for a long time as the government did not support. Now, there is only one psychiatrist for 4,000-plus inmates. Besides, some NGOs visit the prison once in a few months and try to counsel inmates randomly. There is no proper mechanism to address the issue,” the senior official said.
Dr BN Gangadhar, NIMHANS director, however, opined that it cannot be guaranteed that suicides can be prevented through counselling. “Suicide is preventable. At the same time, we cannot say for sure that a person in depression would not take the extreme step if he is counselled. There is no definitive solution for that. But, we should definitely spread awareness and counsel the inmates.”