40 inmates of Presidency Correctional Home all set to become fashion designers
18 July 2017 10:33 PM IST
About 40 inmates of Presidency Correctional Home are all set to become fashion designers after they complete their jail terms or their confinement as under-trials. Fashion designer Abhishek Dutta has been training them hands-on through a fashion unit to stitch trendy apparel — like Nehru jackets, kurtas, shirts and harem pants — besides bags, belts and shoes — which can be bought from Tantuja and Biswa Bangla stores before the pujas and probably also stand alone stores outside the jail sometime later this year.
To encourage their creative effort, Dutta is now getting celebrities like Parambrata, Alokananda Ray, Bickram Ghosh and Jaya Sil to endorse their creations through a fashion show on Saturday. "It was tough to motivate the inmates. You have to do that continuously. They don't really need to work for a living in the jail. However, this exercise of designing couture will improve their confidence and remove the stigma of being in jail once they come out of it," Dutta told Millennium Post.
The products made by inmates are going to be priced at lower rates than designer wears but still good enough to make a living. A jacket will sell between Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. A designer jacket, on the other hand, sells for Rs 10,000. Dutta said that the label will be Abhishek Datta-Tantuja. Dutta says that he enjoys his time in jail, training and encouraging the inmates. "You have to leave the phone outside. Initially, that was difficult to get used to it. But there is a new building where this unit has come up. There are only male prisoners. But female assistants from my own unit go to train them regularly and there has never been any problem. Of course there is surveillance," Dutta explained.
The ace fashion designer now plans to set up similar units in other jails like the Dum Dum Central jail with the help of Tantuja. The unit at Presidency has come up under the guidance of the DG and IG, Prisons, Arun Kumar Gupta and the Correctional services, Bengal government.
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