Prisons across the country make Rs 200 crore of goods a year

MUMBAI: Bollywood films have often depicted inmates of Indian jails either digging ditches or breaking rocks with sledgehammers. But now they could script a new vocation for them as the locked-up labour force in the country made goods worth Rs 200 crore in 2015 through carpentry, weaving, farming and tailoring.

The value of goods produced by jail inmates was Rs 201.8 crore, according to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which is a 33 per cent jump from Rs 151.8 crore in 2014.

Tamil Nadu alone contributed nearly a fourth, or Rs 47.8 crore, worth of merchandise sold with the highest per inmate earning of Rs 34,000 among the states. Not all inmates choose to work because it is voluntary. “Retail initiatives such as Prison Bazaar were driven by Tamil Nadu’s Additional Director General of Police ( Prisons) Vijay Kumar.

We have about 10 outlets now selling in-house brand —Freedom — in apparel and stationery products to the public,” said R Kanagaraj, DIG -Prisons, Chennai, adding they share about 20 per cent of their profit with inmates. “On an average, each inmate earns nearly Rs 4,000 per month.” Abulk of the profit goes to staff welfare funds or is ploughed back for sourcing supplies.

Nearly 71,100 inmates were trained under various vocational training programmes in jails across the country. Authorities hope vocational skills could ease inmates’ transition back into everyday life and reduce relapse into criminal behaviour.

For several years, prison-made products were mostly sold through in-house outlets, government offices, Kendriya Bhandar stores or supplied directly to hospitals. But there has been an increased retail push beyond the walls and iron gates of bleak prisons.

New Delhi ranked second with sales of Rs 31.1 crore with most products sold under brand TJ’s, that started two decades ago. Nearly four years ago, Tihar Jail held roadshows in retail outlets such as Select CityWalk and Reliance Retail to market their wares.

“The work is voluntary and has a soothing effect on convicts who can find a purpose in life through such vocation,” said Neeraj Kumar, former director-general of Tihar Jail.

“The challenge, however, is high overhead cost to set up sales counters and convince consumers who might have reservations in terms of hygiene against products, especially food.” The other high earning states were Kerala (Rs 22.9 crore), Bihar (Rs 19.50 crore) and Maharashtra (Rs 19.45 crore) in 2015.