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Lead by examples, Kiran Bedi tells jail managers - Ashok Sethi
Chandigarh, Nov 2006
Initiator of jail reforms in the country Dr Kiran Bedi has exhorted jail officers to take bold steps to uplift the life of inmates.
She was addressing a two-day training programme on "Seeing and Learning" for the senior jail officers from the North under the aegis of the Bureau of Police Research and Development here recently. Dr Bedi said the officers must provide an environment to the prisoners so that they accept the reforms.
Dr Bedi felt that teamwork help change prisoners' life. The involvement of NGOs in various programmes, including education, vocational training, health and legal aid, can offset the problems of resource crunch.
She urged the jail officials to lead by example. She said the rapport would help to set in motion initiatives for improving the life of the prisoners.
Appreciating the efforts of the DIG (Jails), Mr Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, for starting Guru Nanak Dev University vocational courses for inmates, she urged the prison managers to devise ways to enhance the education through the involvement of university colleges and schools.
Earlier, C.R. Garg, DIG (Prisons) from Tihar, gave a brief account of the efforts made by Sehat, an NGO, for educating prisoners on drugs, HIV and AIDS. Mr Gary Lewis, Regional Representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), South Asia, recently visited Central Jail to preside over the session on "Prison: Community Interface".
This programme was organised by the India Vision Foundation in collaboration with the UNODC.
Appreciating the reforms set in motion by the jail authorities, Mr Lewis said he had never seen this kind of pro-active cooperation between the jail officers and inmates.
Expressing his delight over the experiment where everybody plays his role in this transformation process, he said it had now become an example for others to follow. He emphasised to implement this model in five other prisons in India and in other countries too. He lauded the progress of social education and health advocacy training launched by the India Vision Foundation and the UNODC.
He also visited the de-addiction centre in the prison complex and interacted with addicts.
Dr Jayadev Sarangi, Prison Expert, UNODC, Ms Medha Agnihotri and Ms Amrita Bahl from the India Vision Foundation and Mr C.R. Garg, DIG, Tihar Jail, were present, among others, at the session. "
