KOCHI: People are not born crusaders. Social issues and harsh realities make them take up the cudgels for those who can’t speak out or aren’t heard by officialdom. They go through much trouble and hardships to ring in changes that work to the benefit of those who find themselves at the short end of the stick when it comes to rules and regulations. Dr K Prathibha is one such campaigner.
A medical officer with the health department, Dr Prathibha took up the issue of health checks of those in remand custody of the state government and petitioned the Kerala High Court. The efforts of the 37-year-old paved the way for her recommendations to be included in the medico-legal protocol.
Recounting what inspired her to take up the cause of remand prisoners, Dr Prathibha said: “I was stationed as a medical officer at the Kannur District Hospital in 2018. At around 4:30 pm on a day I was on night duty, police brought in a group of 27 accused. They were to be issued medical certificates, under CrPC section 54, before being produced before a magistrate,” she said.
It’s mandatory to have those remanded be checked up within 24 hours of their arrest, she said.
“But the cops delay the process. They wait for the nth minute to bring in the accused and the certificate is issued in a hurry. It takes at least 15 minutes to conduct the check-up needed to write a certificate. In the case of a medical certificate issued after remand, check-ups needed to be done as per Human Rights Commission guidelines, which take more than 30 minutes to complete,” she said.
According to her, the cops never give enough time for the check-ups to ascertain an accused’s health situation. “Police officers always try to rush things by saying the accused are making excuses. However, that might not be the case every time. The accused might have some ailments and they might be taking medicines. Or the accused might have undergone torture in custody which might have led to injuries. Such injuries if not checked and treated might lead to complications like kidney failure,” said Dr Prathibha.
Taking note of all these issues, she sent two representations with recommendations to the chief secretary.“When nothing happened in the matter, I approached the High Court. On May 2019, the court issued an order directing the government to consider both representations,” said the medical officer of Thanaloor Family Health Centre in Malappuram district.
After the court issued the order, the additional chief secretary of the home department convened a meeting of the top officials of the health, jail and police departments at the secretariat.“They prepared a set of guidelines for the health care of the remand accused taking into consideration the recommendations made in my petitions before the HC,” said Dr Prathibha.
The new guidelines were approved by the director general of prosecution and the health law secretary.
“My battle for reforms was won when on October 2020, the home affairs ministry released a revised set of guidelines for the health and safety of those in remand custody,” she added. My two-and-a-half-year-long legal battle bore fruit on that day, says the doctor.
Another recognition that made a great impact on me was a special mention made by Justice K Narayana Kurup Judicial Commission, she said.“The commission was set up to investigate the Nedumkandam custodial death. The commission had admonished the investigating officers for not conducting a proper medical examination of the accused. On page 138 of the commission’s report, the justice mentioned my observations and recommendations,” she said.
To protect doctors from the pressure exerted by police when it comes to examining the wounds on the bodies of the accused, the doctor approached the state government seeking approval for various types of medical examinations.
“However, I got results only after filing a petition before the HC. The HC directed the chief secretary in October 2021 to include the recommendations that I made in the medico-legal protocol,” she added. On May 7, 2022, the home department brought out the new medico-legal protocol with Dr Prathibha’s recommendations.