After being convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the Naroda Patia massacre, former women and child development minister of Gujarat, Maya Kodnani, a trained medical practitioner, will offer her services to women inmates of Sabarmati jail as a gynaecologist.
Currently, Sabarmati jail has one practicing woman gynaecologist to address medical needs of female inmates and Kodnani is likely to complement her by serving from within the jail. The jail has 105 women convicts serving time and her services may prove handy for the jail authorities.
According to the jail manual, every convicted prisoner has to work while in jail. Kodnani is a convict too and it would be binding on her to undertake any activity of her choice.
Therefore, when jail authorities asked Kodnani which task she would like to undertake in jail, she said that since she was a practicing gynaecologist, she would prefer to offer services to the women prisoners of Sabarmati jail as a doctor.
According to jail authorities, Kodnani will initially act as an apprentice to the woman gynaecologist of Sabarmati jail for a month to give her time to get acclimatised to the rules and regulations of the prison.
The serving gynaecologist of Sabarmati jail will also teach Kodnani about how to talk, behave and treat women
inmates.
After working under her for a month, Kodnani will be allowed to independently deal with women patients in jail.
Authorities at Sabarmati jail are hopeful that with one more gynaecologist, the prison will be able to give quick as well as efficient medical treatment to its women inmates. Wednesday was the sixth day of Kodnani’s 28-year long imprisonment sentence. She has been assigned a cell in the women’s ward, of which, she is the sole occupant.
