HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Sept 12: Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Information Technology, Science and Technology, Government of Assam, Keshab Mahanta on Monday inaugurated Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) dispensation centres at 6 central jails across Assam.
The jails include the central jails of Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur and Nagaon.
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Accompanying minister Mahanta in the day’s event was Barnali Sharma, inspector general, Prisons, Assam.
During her welcome speech, Sharma thanked the Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS) for taking an initiative of providing ART medicines in jails which will prove to be very helpful for the prison inmates who are infected by HIV. She also requested for establishment of Drug De-addiction Centres in jails which will be immensely helpful for the drug users and also requested installation of a digital x-ray machine in jails.
Project director, Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS), Pomi Baruah, in her speech said, “Assam is the 5th state in the country to have ART Dispensation Centres in jails and I believe that these centres will be very beneficial to the prison inmates who are infected with HIV. For various security reasons, it becomes difficult for an HIV-infected prison inmate to avail HIV treatment in ART Centres located in hospitals. Now, with the establishment of ART Dispensation Centres in jails, the prison-inmate can avail ART at door step.”
She further said that these ART Dispensation Centres will be linked with 9 ART Centres which are located in medical colleges and district hospitals across Assam and very soon all medical colleges will have ART Centres. She added, “There are Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) services for injecting drug users in Central Jail, Guwahati and very soon OST services will be made available in other jails across Assam.”
Speaking on the occasion, principal secretary to Govt of Assam, Avinash Joshi, appreciated the efforts of the ASACS and jail authorities and said, “Assam being the 5th state to initiate ART Dispensation Centre in Central Jails is an achievement by itself. I hope such centres will go a long way in helping the HIV-infected prison inmates.”
Minister Keshab Mahanta while presiding over the inauguration ceremony as chief guest said, “Prisons were considered as punishment homes during the British era but now-a-days prisons are temples of reformation where a prison inmate gets an opportunity to get himself reformed. Besides, health facilities, other facilities like libraries for the inmates are already there and now we are going a step further by establishing ART Dispensation Centres and OST services so that prison inmates can avail the treatment in jails itself.”
The inaugural function which saw the presence of officials from ASACS and Central Jail, Guwahati concluded with vote of thanks from the superintendent, Guwahati Central Jail, Gobinda Malakar.
