THE INVISIBLE CRISIS: MENTAL HEALTH OF PRISONERS IN INDIA (BY ANANYA DUTT & HIMANSHU BODWAL)
Introduction
Covid 19 created havoc, not just to life of people, but also crashed down economies, generated
unemployment at a humongous scale but its biggest destruction has been giving rise to
depression and anxiety in minds of millions of people. While we struggled locked up in our
homes, it was those locked up in our prisons who suffered twice than normal citizen.
Henry David Thoreau had correctly said, “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand
ourselves”1
. The concept of imprisonment is based on the idea of creating a safe society where
the wrongdoer is punished and he gets a chance of introspection, of bettering himself to be able
to live in the society again peacefully. But Indian Prisons have failed to achieve its goal due to
several reasons but the most undervalued of them is the mental health of those locked up for
several of years.
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)2
reported that Prison inmates are twice more
likely to die of suicide than the general Indian Population. The WHO and International Red
cross has also reported that situations involving inadequate healthcare facilities, sexual and
physical assaults, overcrowding tends to increase the possibility of mental health issues. In the
year 2020, Tata Trusts’ Indian Justice Report stated that Prisons in India have a shortfall of
medical staff by 41% while in 35of 36 states/UTs, prison occupancy exceeds 50% of inmates3
.
Crimes that are committed are either done by someone already suffering from some mental
disorder or result of extreme case of anxiety and depression, and if that’s not the case, then the
said accused develop some mental disorder while locked up in jails, or worse solitary
confinement. When mental health is holding centre stage in today’s generation, the mental
health of convicts remain unattended.