A total of 1,775 prisoners died in India during 2019, while they were in custody, data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated. Out of this, 1,544 were natural deaths; mainly due to aging or illness, while 165 were categorised as unnatural deaths.
"Natural deaths accounted for 86.99% and Unnatural deaths accounted for 9.30% of the total deaths. Out of the 1,544 Natural deaths, there were 1,466 deaths due to illness and 78 deaths due to ageing," the NCRB said.
Majority of the natural deaths were reported under heart related ailments (406) followed by lung related ailments (190), Tuberculosis (81), cancer (78), liver related ailments (61), brain hemorrhage (56), kidney related Ailments (51), HIV (43) and other ailments (500).
Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of deaths due to natural causes (393) followed by Madhya Pradesh (156) and Maharashtra (121), the data compiled until December 31, 2019 showed.
Among the 165 unnatural causes of deaths in prisons, 116 were death by suicide followed by 20 accidental deaths, murder by inmates (10), deaths due to negligence and excess by jail personnel (2), and Others (15)
Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of unnatural deaths (29) followed by Punjab (20) and West Bengal (12).
In the south, Karnataka reported the most natural deaths at 55 followed by Tamil Nadu at 53. The two states reported 10 and 5 unnatural deaths respectively. This is followed by Kerala with 30 natural deaths and 3 unnatural deaths. Andhra Pradesh reported 22 natural deaths and 3 unnatural deaths followed by Telangana with 17 natural deaths and 5 unnatural deaths.
Giving a breakdown of the last few years, the NCRB said, "A total of 1,702, 1,584, 1,655, 1,671, 1,845 and 1,775 deaths of prisoners were reported during the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. All these years, natural deaths accounted for more than 85% of the total deaths."
The data also showed that jails across India remained overcrowded in 2019, lodging 4.78 lakh prisoners against the actual capacity of 4.03 lakh, while also being understaffed with a strength of 60,787 against the sanctioned strength of 87,599.