Female inmates to undergo training in art, painting

Kolkata: The state Correctional Administration department is undertaking a new project of imparting training in art and painting for female inmates of Dum Dum Correctional Home. The project, titled "Srishti Rakshak" is aimed mainly at imbibing creativity to the mother inmates and their children.

The Correctional Administration department has joined hands with an NGO in this initiative and the inauguration will be officially done by state Correctional Administration minister Ujjal Biswas on Monday.

"The initiative will engage female inmates giving them an opportunity to express their thoughts and imagination through creativity. Children are allowed to stay with their mothers up to the age of six years. This new move will keep them occupied and they will surely enjoy painting alongside their mothers," a senior official of the department said.

The NGO that will impart the training has selected 10 of the female inmates among which six are mother inmates. "We had our own selection process and found that these inmates have the zeal and potential of doing good painting if they get professional guidance. A professional teacher has been roped in for the training process. The move will also ensure better bonding with their mothers," founder of the NGO Chaitali Das said. In the last few years, painting has evoked great interest among the inmates of different correctional homes. Inmates have even been taken out of the four walls of the correctional homes and allowed to vent out their thoughts with the help of colours. "We are hopeful of the success of the project," Director General (Correctional Administration) Arun Kumar Gupta said. The concept of 'prisons' have undergone a sea change in the last few years and many inmates who have been released have returned to mainstream after thorough reformation.

The department has also decided that children accompanying their mothers who are serving terms in different correctional homes will be taught poems written by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Various NGOs that have been entrusted with the job of teaching the children have recently decided on this. The NGOs found that the poems written by Banerjee will be of great help in the mental growth and orientation of the children.