By IANS,
Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) : In a bid to generate employment behind the bars, the prison authorities here have joined hands with garments manufacturers who would now hire jail inmates for producing readymade clothes.
“The objective behind the initiative is to make jail inmates self-reliant so that they not only can take care of their personal needs, but also of their family members,” Senior Superintendent of Meerut District Jail R.K. Kesarwani told reporters.
According to jail officials, for the first phase, the jail administration has roped in two-three garments manufacturers who would first train a limited number of inmates and later provide them with the orders of making clothes.
“Though in later stages, we plan to cover majority of the inmates under the new programme, around 60-odd inmates have already started making clothes as per the job assigned to them. These prisoners are those who were once associated with tailoring units. They started the work last week,” said Kesarwani in Meerut, some 500 km from Lucknow.
According to officials, by preparing clothes on the orders given by the garments manufacturers, a prisoner would be able to earn around Rs.5,000-6,000 per month.
“Isn’t it great? With that money the inmates would be in a position to hire services of a particular lawyer or may even send a part of their income to their families that have to face several hardships with the bread winner lodged in the prison,” said Kesarwani.
At present, the Meerut Jail has around 2,300 inmates.