NHRC notice to UP Govt over 265 HIV +cases in UP jails

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that 24 prisoners have tested positive for HIV in the last four months at Gorakhpur District Jail in Uttar Pradesh. They include 21 undertrials and three convicts including a woman.

During the tests conducted by the Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society in 70 jails of the State, 265 prisoners reportedly tested HIV positive till December 2017. These cases have been reported from the jails in Bareilly, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Faizabad, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi and Kanpur, according to an NHRC release.

The NHRC has issued notices to the Chief Secretary and IG (Prisons) of Uttar Pradesh calling for detailed reports in the matter within six weeks along with the steps taken to deal with the menace. It has also observed that the contents of the news report, if true, indicate  sorry state of affairs in the jails of Uttar Pradesh. Seemingly, there is an urgent need to conduct a probe into the matter to determine the cause of the spread of HIV infection among prisoners, it said adding it is also necessary to take immediate preventive measures so that other prisoners do not fall prey to the infection and those, who are suffering are provided necessary medical treatment.

According to the media report, carried on February 28, 2018, the jail administration has claimed that the disease did not spread inside the jail and the prisoners were already infected when they arrived. Most of them have been jailed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.