Mumbai: Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai will soon join Yerwada and Arthur Road jails in providing telemedicine facilities to its 2,230 inmates, and enable them to consult doctors at the State-run J.J. Hospital through video-conferencing.
Deputy SP (Taloja Jail) Sadanand Gaikwad told The Hindu , “The facility has been already started in Yerwada and Arthur Road jails and is working well. We now will make sure it is started here as well. I will be meeting the dean soon to figure out if the equipment is in place. We already have a video conferencing unit used by inmates to depose in court.”
Of the inmates at Taloja Jail, 372 are convicts. The prison has been struggling with lack of police guards to escort prisoners to court or hospital. “Video conferencing will help in saving time and reducing expenses incurred when police guards escort inmates,” Mr. Gaikwad said.
The jail has a hospital with two doctors and 40 beds, and an Out-Patient Department (OPD). “We had three doctors, but one retired recently. All beds are mostly full, but in extreme cases we consult Vashi Municipal Hospital, where the doctors mostly refer patients to JJ Hospital. Instead of travelling there, the telemedicine facility here will be welcome. We expect the facility to be started by June,” he added.
Mr. Gaikwad said Taloja jail conducts medical camps every month for inmates. Every week, a psychiatrist from Alibaug visits the jail. On average, medicines costing around ₹20,000 are provided to the jail every month. “At times, undertrials suffer from depression or mental ailments and are in need of counselling. While talking to them, we come to know if they are mentally disturbed. In such cases, telemedicine will be helpful for them.”
Taloja jail inmates are involved in cases in 220 different courts in Thane, Mumbai, Kalyan, Alibaug and Navi Mumbai.
The Navi Mumbai Police has provided 239 police guards to Taloja Jail to escort undertrials to court. “Of these, all are not available all the time. Most are engaged in bandobast duty, and we only get around 50 police guards on average. Thus, if 150 inmates have to be produced on a day like that, we are able to produce only 25,” he said.
Jail authorities said that this is where video conferencing plays a major role.
“Till a few months ago, only 150 video conferencing sessions were conducted every month due to lack of of adequate IT infrastructure. With more units being installed, video conferencing sessions have gone up to 700 a month. Convicts who wish to appeal in the Supreme Court don’t have to travel to Delhi, and can depose from here using video-conferencing.”
