What do Sumitra, Saurav, Laxmichand and Ramesh have in common? They are all inmates of Himachal Pradesh’s open jails. Serving a term in prisons that go beyond keeping inmates in cells adds a new dimension to the lives of prisoners.

They can do meaningful work, earn a salary and send their children to school. It is not a life wasted languishing in jail. Here is how reforms typically changed the lives of many inmates:

Sumitra’s story

Serving life imprisonment at one of the district jails, Sumitra initially had no choice but to leave her eight-year-old son in the care of a home run by the government welfare department and her nine-year-old daughter with her relatives.

But thanks to the open jail system, the two children, who have now grown up and are studying in Class IX and X respectively, live in a small residential facility some distance away from the jail.

Thanks to the open jail system, Sumitra has been permitted to work in a school away from the jail premises as a peon and earns ₹7,000 a month. She is able to pay for the upkeep of her children. Though Sumitra cannot live with them, they often come and meet her at the school or at the jail barrack.

“I am not able to stay with my children but at least I am able to see them, ask them about their studies and get to know whether they are eating well or not.” That indeed is a huge satisfaction for Sumitra, who is one of the three women in Himachal Pradesh permitted to work outside the jail premises. Of course, she does worry a lot about the children, specially her daughter, as there is no elderly person to take care of them.

Ramesh’s experience

Ramesh is one of the two open air jail inmates from Shimla district jail Kaithu, who run a book café close to Takka Bench, the Ridge, Shimla. At this quiet and cosy café, one can browse books lined up neatly on the shelves while sipping coffee or savouring cookies, cakes, hot dogs, pizzas and other snacks. The goodies on the menu are all prepared at a sub-jail in Shimla.

Ramesh says there is no time to brood and think of the past as one is busy the whole day serving customers — mostly students. He is also assigned the job of spreading awareness about free legal service provided by the government through pamphlets and booklets.

Sole breadwinner for his family, Ramesh has four children, two school-going and two studying in college. “My wife is not able to work in the fields or take advantage of the MGNREGA scheme in my village following a surgery,” he says. The ₹225 he earns per day comes in handy for his family. “Both my college-going children are very good at studies, getting 80 to 90 per cent marks, and I feel good that I am now able to pay for their education, otherwise they would have been forced to discontinue their studies and start working,” says Ramesh, with a measure of pride.

Saurav too feels the same pride. A former IIT student serving a life sentence, he is now earning a living by teaching physics and chemistry at a coaching centre. He has also created jail recruitment software and an e-commerce website for State prisons. “It is a great diversion,” he says. “Finally, I am able to do what I wanted to do.”

Laxmichand is also making full use of his talent. He designs pot-stands, railings and grills at a workshop in the jail complex. “I feel like my sentence has been cut by half since I was shifted to the open jail barrack,” he says.

Each of the 12 prisons in Himachal Pradesh today has open air barracks. Earlier there was only one designated open jail. Prisoners in open air barracks are not kept under lock and key and they can earn a living within a specified distance away from the jail.

According to Himachal Pradesh Director General Prisons, Somesh Goyal, an initiative for creating job opportunities under Har haath ko kaam (A job for every hand) for the inmates within prisons in the State was initiated by him in 2016. It was following a study done with the help of an IIT student that showed 46 per cent of inmates are sole breadwinners. “We therefore thought that our wage earning programme should be targeted at these sole breadwinners, so that they are able to send money to their families.”

Goyal says they are finding inmates jobs even outside the prisons, skilling them, producing diversified products, helping to enhance production and marketing. At present, over 150 men and three women go out of the prison to work. They are mostly employed in private establishment, industries, hotels, beauty parlours and educational institutions.

From the jail’s in-house manufacturing, readymade garments, spices, furniture, bakery and other products are being sold under the ‘Kaara line’ brand name at exhibitions at Gaiety Theatre in Shimla and Dilli Haat. The inmates also do laundry for hotels, work in welding workshops and car-washing facilities.

In 2015, the total in-house factory turnover was less than ₹25 lakh and wages paid to the prisoners less than ₹5 lakh. In 2017-18 fiscal, the turnover went up to ₹3.28 crore while ₹1.14 crore was paid to inmates as wages.

Going forward, there is a move to expand into producing school furniture, school uniforms, linen for hotels and soap-making for in-house consumption.

Not long ago, a sanitary pad making factory was also set up at the Nahan jail. This is not only to take care of personal hygiene of women but also for creating wage-earning activity for women inmates, explains Goyal. Today, the unit caters beyond in-house needs. “We are tapping other markets for sanitary pads with the help of NGOs,” says Vikas Bhatnagar, Deputy Superintendent Police, Nahan Jail.

A strong votary of prison reforms, Goyal says Himachal Pradesh is the first jail system in the country where regular mattresses are now being provided to each of the inmates in open air barracks as well as to all women inmates.

“Yes, they have committed a crime for which they are already suffering, but one has to have a humane approach.” (Names of all inmates have been changed to maintain anonymity)

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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