Sanitary napkins manufacture is the latest industrial activity to take off in Tiruchi Central Prison.
A separate unit to manufacture around 3,000 napkins a day has been commissioned within the sprawling prison premises where an array of products was produced by the prisoners.
Machines required for the manufacture of napkins had been installed with 15 convicts to be involved in the latest industrial activity.
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Three prisoners from the Puzhal Prison at Chennai have come here to impart hands-on training on the manufacture of sanitary napkins to Tiruchi inmates.
The Prison Department would procure raw material required for its manufacture. The napkins would be supplied through the Tamil Medical Services Corporation, a State government undertaking, to the government hospitals across the State for the use of women in the postpartum period.
Production of napkins is expected to commence shortly once the training session is over, prison authorities here told
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The sanitary napkins unit has been established with Rs. 4.85 lakh funds granted by the district administration through the District Welfare Committee. Wages would be paid to the convicts involved in this trade.
R. Duraisamy, Deputy Inspector-General of Prisons, Tiruchi Range, commissioned the new unit on Wednesday in the presence of Superintendent of Prisons K. Jeyabarathi who is in-charge of the Tiruchi Central Prison.
A range of products were being manufactured in the prison industrial units at Tiruchi Jail, including file pads, bed-sheets, oil soaps, towels, woollen blanket, and rain coats. Industrial units were started in the Tiruchi prison, accommodating over 1,000 prisoners, as a rehabilitation measure for the inmates and to engage them in productive vocation during their sentence period.
It was the convicts who were involved in the manufacture of products, say prison officials. Plans are afoot to start a sanitary napkins manufacturing unit at the Special Prison for Women here.