In a first-of-its kind initiative, a Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) will be opened in the Tiruchi Central Prison to impart hands-on training in various vocational trades to select inmates.
The move is yet another measure to rehabilitate prisoners once they walk out of the jail after completing their sentence period.
The Prison Department has teamed up with the Directorate of Employment and Training to set up the ITI, which will offer a slew of vocational courses for the prisoners.
The ITI will function in the VII block inside the sprawling Central Prison, accommodating over 1,300 prisoners, including more than 500 convicts serving lengthy terms.
The government has sanctioned Rs. 70 lakh for the initiative. The ITI would offer five courses – welder, computer operator and programming assistant, cutting and sewing technology, fitter and electrician.
Barring the fitter and electrician courses which are of two-year duration, the remaining are one-year courses. Certificates would be provided to the prisoners upon conducting examinations. A total number of 168 convicts are to be admitted to the courses of their choice in the ITI. Priority would be given to convicts undergoing term sentence whose date of release is known, Superintendent of Prisons A. Murugesan told The Hindu . The sessions would be held daily on the jail premises from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and handled by a team of tutors arranged by the Directorate of Employment and Training.
Among the nine central prisons in the State, the Tiruchi Jail had been chosen first for starting the ITI. Based on the outcome, the initiative was to be extended to other prisons, Mr Murugesan said.
The study materials would be provided by the Directorate of Employment and Training to the inmates admitted to the courses.
The Tiruchi Central Prison already has in place vibrant prison industrial units with convicts engaged in a slew of activities, including tailoring, soap making, card board and file pad manufacture, weaving and book binding.
The units were started as a rehabilitation initiative to engage inmates in a productive vocation for which they were being paid wages.
