NEW DELHI: The country’s largest central prison Tihar jail has started imparting skill training to over 1,000 inmates, being tried for petty crimes, with a purpose to reform and reintegrate them into society.
Jail term in cases of petty crimes varies from six to nine months.
They will be trained in food and beverage service related segments for three to four months in various batches, jail authorities said, adding that each batch will have 30 inmates.
They said that 1,020 inmates will be trained by Primero Skills and Training Pvt Ltd. The programme aims to empower inmates financially and stop them from going back into crime, authorities said.
The skill training programme, being conducted under the Innovative and Special Projects of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission, will try to ensure that 70 per cent of the trainees get jobs, they said.
More such programmes are in the pipeline under the prison’s reformative initiatives, the authorities said.
The programme has been sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and it was inaugurated by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, according to a statement issued by the jail administration.
Saxena, while addressing inmates, said that such programmes will help in “enhancement of their skills, which will help in earning their livelihood post-release and thus, also support their family”, according to the statement.
He also told them that they have the capacity to reform, provided they have the willpower and commitment to never come back to prison again, it said.
Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar; Principal Secretary (Home) Ashwani Kumar and Director General (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal were among the senior government officers present at the event.
Naresh Kumar encouraged prisoners to show good conduct and secure remission of their sentences.
Sixty-seven prisoners were released for their good conduct under the prison remission norm on the occasion. (PTI)
