Lack of facilities to suit their needs compound the hardships of jail life for disabled and ailing prisoners of Tihar,South Asias largest prison complex,an RTI reply reveals. Many convicts and undertrials lodged in Tihar,which has more than 10,000 inmates against its capacity of nearly 6,000,have various disabilities. Some even suffer from psychiatric disorders. Though prison authorities insisted that only four inmates need wheelchairs,the RTI reply says jail No. 2 - one of Tihars 10 wings within the complex and a district prison in Rohini - has 17 physically-challenged prisoners,but they have to make-do with a single foldable wheelchair that was provided on April 16,2012. The disabled prisoners include three polio patients,one with disability in the left leg following a road accident and one suffers from right knee joint trauma that makes walking difficult. In jail No. 5,two wheelchairs are available for four disabled prisoners. For two polio-stricken men in jail No. 7,a single wheelchair is available,the RTI reply reveals. In jail No. 3,of the four wheelchairs,two were broken. In jail No. 4,which has six polio-stricken inmates,only two of the five available wheelchairs can be used. Similarly,two wheelchairs were purchased in 2006 for jail No. 6,but one got damaged in February this year. Worse still,damaged wheelchairs have not been repaired or replaced,though jail superintendents have forwarded requests in this regard to the higher authorities. Most wheelchairs were procured after 2005 and no record was available on what facilities were available for disabled inmates prior to that. The superintendent of jail No. 8 and 9 said: No extra facility is provided to the prisoners. Fellow inmates help them with their daily chores. Replying to a similar RTI filed by the Human Rights Law Network,a group of lawyers working for social causes,jail authorities in Rohini had said: There is no provision in place to assist inmates with speech,hearing and visual disabilities. Special toilets may be provided for disabled inmates. Ramps or slopes can be built in place of stairs at required places. Outside attendants are not allowed to help disabled inmates. There are two inmates blind in the left eye in jail No. 4 and another who suffers from retinis pigmentosa,a degenerative disease that damages the retina. But no special aid is provided to them. Jail spokesperson Sunil Gupta said: Inmates assist the disabled prisoners. We have doctors to attend to their medical needs. If doctors recommend any external appliance,the matter is referred to the jail superintendent. For court visits,wheelchairs are definitely provided to those who need one. There is no shortage, Gupta claimed. The RTI reply says specialists visit the jail hospital and patients are referred outside,if deemed necessary. This was in stark contrast to a Newsline report in February when V R Santosh Kumar alias Anand Raghavan,a disabled undertrial diagnosed with corrosive stricture of oesophagus,died in DDU Hospital after jail authorities ignored his repeated requests for treatment outside the jail. In his letters,sent to the jail authorities,he alleged that the treatment he received in prison was akin to animals in a zoo. The jails have 576 prisoners mostly undertrials with psychiatric disorders,the RTI reply to the Human Rights Law Network says. Jail authorities said guidelines were being worked out with the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) on appropriate methods to manage the mentally-ill inmates.
