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Inmates at the Indore Central Jail have a new passion. With 40-50 kg of leather made available to them every month, the convicts are busy churning out leather products to be sold locally.
Soon, their handbags and wallets will find their way to the markets at Indore and Bhopal, and a national rollout is planned later.
An initiative of Tata International Ltd (TIL), engaged in the business of leather goods, training is imparted to the jail inmates at Ujjain. The idea is to motivate the prisoners to learn skills and utilise them for self-employment and income generation.
Started on June 12, 2012, TIL (leather garment and article business) has sent over two lots of leather from its manufacturing unit at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. An instructor, trained by the company, works with the inmates at the Indore Central Jail to enhance the quality of goods and ensure that certain standards are met for a national rollout.
“At present, the leather products (bag, handbags and wallets) are sold locally by small retailers. This is because the quality is not up to the level of a TIL product. To help them achieve the required quality, a technical person will be sent to the jail to train one of the inmates, who will be the master trainer. He, in turn, will teach the others,” said a company spokesperson.
Under supervision
The programme is conducted under the supervision of DGP-Prison of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Sanjay Mane, and Mr Dinesh Nargave, Superintendent of Indore Central Jail.
An assessment of the programme is to be conducted after six months so that, if required, corrective measures can be taken. The learnings are to be used to start similar programmes in other jails of the State.
Tata International has two main businesses — leather and engineering (including automobiles distribution in Africa). With a network of 42 offices that span India and the globe, the company’s business unit develops 60 new products every year. Its R&D unit has also made breakthroughs in processing chrome-free leather.
>amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in
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