Gujarat’s first jail school opens in Sabarmati prison

These days there is a new kind of activity every morning on the premises of Sabarmati central prison in the city. Some children clad in blue-and-white uniform and carrying schoolbags make their way to a particular building on the jail premises, evoking strong emotion in everyone watching them.

The neatly clad kids are children of women prisoners of Sabarmati jail. They are students of the newly-opened Shri Yogkshem Primary School on the jail premises. This first-of-its-kind school in the state has been opened by a city-based NGO, Yogkshem Manav Gaurav Sansthan.

PC Thakur, additional director general of police (ADGP) (prisons) said that 10 students are currently enrolled at the school which is housed in two rooms of a building on the jail premises. The school runs classes from Standard I to IV, he said.

“All the prisons in the state have an anganvadi. Now we have started this school to ensure children free and compulsory education,” Thakur said.

Efforts are on to open a similar school in Vadodara central prison. The aim of these schools is to ensure that children living in prison complexes because their mothers are serving prison terms receive primary education.

“Children’s education should not suffer because of their parents serving prison terms. This is the objective with which we have opened the school,” said Rajedra Shukla, president of Yogkshem.

The NGO will be hiring the services of trained teachers for the school. The school will provide students with free uniform, schoolbags and the necessary stationary items, Shukla added.