The prolonged COVID-19 lockdown led to the temporary or permanent closure of many manufacturing industries, what with restricted movement and acute shortage of raw materials and manpower. But there was one ‘industry’ that sustained productivity and never let go the tempo — the prison industry of Tamil Nadu, in which the workers are convicts, most of them serving life imprisonment.
While the lockdown had curtailed personal audiences with family members, the convicts lodged in central prisons sustained operations all through the peak of the pandemic with in-house production in the leather, textile, boot, book-binding, carpentry, tailoring and other units. This helped the Tamil Nadu Prisons & Correctional Services Department surge ahead of other States in earning revenue for the sixth consecutive year.
The prison industry primarily caters to the needs of government departments such as Health, Police and Education and works on orders. Over the years, the prison authorities have focussed on imparting skills to the inmates to make them employable and facilitate their merger with the mainstream workforce on their release.
This scheme of offering vocational courses and promoting industry is also part of the rehabilitation measures to inculcate work habit in the inmates. Since 2015, the Tamil Nadu prison industry has been consistently on the top, except in 2017 when it took the second place. Though Telangana bagged the top slot in 2017, 2018 and 2019, prison officials contend that the margin that pushed Tamil Nadu to the second position was the proceeds of retail fuel outlets managed by the prisoners.
However, going by the norms prescribed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), sale proceeds refer to the value of goods produced by the inmates. The NCRB has clarified that petrol/diesel is not produced in the prison and hence the fuel sale proceeds cannot be included in the overall gross value.
“If the sale proceeds of petrol/diesel is excluded, the gross revenue of Tamil Nadu exceeds that of Telangana for 2018 and 2019,” pointed out a senior prison official.
New avenues
The prisoners have also ventured into agriculture, nursery development and compost making. The prison products are promoted at stalls in public exhibitions, police canteen, government offices and retail fuel outlets in the brand name ‘Freedom’.
Asked whether the release of prisoners by granting bail during the pandemic affected the prison industry, Director-General of Police (Prisons) Sunil Kumar Singh replied in the negative, saying only the convicts were employed.
However, there were some difficulties in the procurement of raw materials as many suppliers had shut operations during the lockdown. Steps were taken to ensure COVID-19-appropriate behaviour, which resulted in very few inmates getting infected. Regular health screening camps were held, in which prisoners were also vaccinated. Interviews with family members were allowed through video calls.
Not for profit
“We can say the pandemic had little impact on the prison industry. The value of production was about ₹60 crore in 2020-21. Aggressive marketing or sales is not our priority. The primary objective is to rehabilitate prisoners and reintegrate them into society on their release,” Mr. Singh said.
The prison industry was planning to make ready-made garments, bedsheets, paver blocks and fly ash bricks and launch the ‘Freedom’ brand on e-commerce platforms.
The DGP said the value of industrial production in the last three fiscal was ₹72 crore, ₹79 crore and ₹59 crore. “We have set a target of ₹100 crore for 2022-23. However, we believe the value in terms of positive engagement of business in the industry and the sense of hope it instills in the human mind outvalues productivity in monetary terms,” Mr Singh said.
