Awaiting rational interventions

In a laudable move, the Ministry of Culture organised a three-day mediation and self-realisation programme from August 12-15 in 75 chosen prisons across the country on the eve of the 75th Independence Day and the 150th birth anniversary of Shri Aurobindo. The ministry took a cue from the views of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said there was a need to transform the lives of inmates lodged in the Indian prisons through self-realisation and self-thinking.

The ministry partnered with five noted spiritual leaders and organisations like Ramakrishna Mission, Art of Living and Isha Foundation to facilitate yoga, meditation and teachings of Maharishi Aurobindo to the prisoners.

Prisons and the Indian freedom movement are inextricably intertwined. Those prisons selected had an association with the freedom struggle and had housed noted freedom fighters of the country.

This effort is laudable because it is for the first time that any ministry of the Central government has considered prisons a place honourable enough for such activities over other institutions like schools and colleges. It also becomes significant because the five lakh odd inmates now engage the national conscience and attention besides that of the Supreme Court.

It is not that therapies like yoga, meditation and music have not been tried in the past in prisons. What we do not know is the quantum of success these programmes have yielded in view of the prison demographics that suggest otherwise.

According to a study conducted in prisons, 46 per cent of inmates are the sole breadwinners for their families. The message from these inmates who show signs of frustration, anxiety, helplessness, depression and anger at not being able to support their families is loud and clear. It is Bhooke bhajan na hoye Gopala! Only meditation and chanting bhajans will not satiate the hunger of their near and dear ones. They need livelihood opportunities during incarceration.

Let us look at the prison demographics for 2021 released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Eighty-seven per cent of all prisoners are in the productive age group of 18-50 years. This is the age when their families need them the most. Their imprisonment makes their families secondary victims of the crime — forcing them to suffer from social stigma, abuse, ostracisation, financial hardship and, above all, deprivation of the presence and support of the head of the family.

The other data suggests that literacy and crime also bear a direct link. Twenty-five per cent of prisoners are illiterate while another 40 per cent are below matriculation. Add to this another 24 per cent who are below graduation. In sum total, a whopping 89 per cent of inmates have below graduation educational qualifications.

Prisons are often blamed for being seminaries of crime. The above demographics should suggest that thousands of youths are readily available for recruitment in crime syndicates, drug and liquor cartels, mercenary gangs and other anti-social and anti-national groups if not weaned away from the life of crime by skilling them appropriately to lead an honourable life in society.

Yoga, music and meditation are important, but the state governments have to seriously engage in the rehabilitation of these youth in the right earnest for not only their better future but for the overall welfare of the society at large.

Most states do not have well-calibrated, organised and fully state-funded skill development and livelihood programmes in their prisons. These programmes are carried out by a well-meaning and motivated prison leadership with the help of civil society and minuscule funding from the state. The redeeming feature, however, is that many states have notified that all government departments will purchase certain products from the jails only.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a profound statement while inaugurating the sports meet for prison officials in Kankaria, Ahmedabad, "The jail administration cannot be ignored and we need to change the approach the prisons are seen in this society. All the convicts serving jail terms are not born criminals but circumstances force them to get involved in criminal activities…. It is the responsibility of the jail administration for the re-induction of those who are not natural, born, habitual criminals into society".

He laid emphasis on providing libraries for prisoners, rehabilitating them by providing training and education, and establishing good hospitals and mental development activities.

Prisons do not have adequate skilled trainers and educators. The Ministry of Skill Development and Enterprise needs to step in to create prisoners-specific programmes that will equip even illiterate inmates in fending for themselves when released from jail. The ministry is believed to have developed over 5,000 skill programmes for a vast clientele. Including prisons in their ambit will be a game changer for the inmates.

The second initiative that the Union Home Ministry can stitch in partnership with the Textiles Ministry is to create a handloom cluster in one of the prisons in every state. Weaving is part of the trades practised in most state prisons. Some private social groups are promoting handlooms in prisons. Handloom weaving, otherwise, is a dying art replaced by power looms. There is a need for the revival of this craft, and the ministry of textiles can embrace prisons to achieve that goal.

There is great demand for quality handloom products. This writer upgraded the handloom workshops in prisons of Himachal Pradesh under Har Haath ko Kaam project. More handlooms were either purchased or fabricated in the prison carpentry workshops. Better training, designs, raw material, and post-processing were ensured to produce premium handloom products such as shawls, stoles, tweeds, blankets, etc. The Textile Ministry was also approached to authorise the handloom products made in Himachal prisons to carry the handloom logo.

As per the NCRB report, a total of 39,313 prisoners were provided with various vocational training during the year 2021, which is not even ten per cent of the prison population. The bulk of the training was in handloom & weaving, carpentry and agriculture. Trades associated with the digital economy continue to be a far cry for the inmates.

It is hoped that after the Union Home Minister's statement, his ministry will assume a greater role in coordinating with other ministries for developing programmes towards skilling the prisoners. Most such programmes in closed environments like prisons suffer from a top-down approach, resulting in partial success and satisfaction. A participatory approach alive to the inclination of trainees, skill requirement of industry and trade, available infrastructure and qualified trainers can deliver a winsome formula in this space.

Wages paid to the prisoners vary from state to state. The average per diem wage for a skilled worker is Rs111, Rs 95 for semi-skilled and Rs 88 for an unskilled worker, as per the latest 2021 report of NCRB. The minimum wage for unskilled work paid by Himachal Pradesh is Rs 300. There is definitely a scope for upward revision of wages for variously skilled inmates.

Mere training and manufacturing will not help. The products made in prisons are generally in great demand. The NCRB data pegged the value of prison products at Rs 238 crore in the calendar year 2021. Wider market access will have to be provided at the Central and state levels for people to sample and buy jail products. Iconic places like Dilli Haat must provide representation to prison products from states by rotation.

National Informatics Centre (NIC) can build a portal and a mobile app for sale of jail products from all the states so that they reach a large population of the country. Private e-tailers have no interest in promoting prison products on their platforms due to less margin offered by the prisons.

Nelson Mandela famously said, "It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones."

The focus of policymakers should be on those 46 per cent of inmates whose families eat only when they earn.

The writer is a retired Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh. Views expressed are personal