Image Courtesy:thehindu.com
Mansukh Mandaviya, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, has provided state-wise details of prisoners vaccinated as on August 4, 2021. Only 22,345 prisoners have been fully vaccinated across all 37 states and Union Territories (UT). The Prison Statistics of India report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2019 has revealed that a total of 4,78,600 prisoners have been confined in various jails across the country, as on December 31, 2019. Arguably, the number will be way higher taking into account all arrests made in the last one year.
Out of the total 1,87,453 doses administered, only 1,65,108 prisoners have received their first shot. 15 states and UTs don’t have a single prisoner who is fully protected against Covid-19. They are-Andamans, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry and Tripura. Shockingly, the National Capital has only 2 prisoners who have received their first shot!
Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of prisoners who have been fully inoculated (as of August 4, 2021) at 2,826, followed by Uttar Pradesh (2,789), Rajasthan (2,368), and Gujarat (2,237). Uttar Pradesh (24,230) has the highest number of prisoners who have received their first dose, followed by Maharashtra (21,868) and Bihar (17,626).
Mandaviya’s answer also read, “Covid-19 vaccination is an ongoing and dynamic process, which is being guided by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) on the basis of concurrent scientific evidence. It is expected that eligible beneficiaries aged 18 years and above, including prisoners, will be vaccinated by December 2021.”
Earlier during the budget session, the Home Affairs Ministry had failed to provide data about the number of prisoners who have tested positive for the virus and succumbed to it, reported SabrangIndia. Approximately 70 percent of Indian jails consist of undertrials, and despite orders from the Supreme Court to release inmates on interim bail to decongest prisons, a rough total of 1,92,125 undertrials have continued to languish in jails, against 1,38,416 inmates who have been released on parole/bail over the last one year.
The answer may be read here:
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