Museum chronicling its history to come up at Tihar jail

Tihar jail authorities plan to come up with a museum inside its premises to chronicle the history of the prison, one of the largest in the world.

How it evolved from a small jail in Delhi Gate area to a prison spread over 400 acres of land at Tihar village in western part of New Delhi, the pioneering developments that happened at the jail will all feature in this museum, Tihar Prisons spokesperson Sunil Gupta said.

"We will display everything. The innovative ideas of the inmates in getting banned things inside the jail including the method using the holes in their bodies to hide prohibited articles will also be displayed in the museum," Gupta said.

This will be open to public and will be located somehwere inside the Tihar premises, he said.

Tihar Prisons is one of the largest prison complexes in the world comprising nine central prisons and one district Prison at Rohini Prison Complex. The total population in ten prisons is around 12000 prisoners against the sanctioned capacity of 6250 prisoners.

The proposed museum will highlight facts like pioneering work done by the jail by conducting a campus recruitment for its inmates, its reformation programme, education facilities made available to its inmates, Gupta said.

The museum will also tell visitors about how the jail produced an IAS officer and the presence of inmates trying to make it to the prestigious administrative civil service, he said.

Gupta said that the Tihar jail factory that manufactures various bakery items and also has units like carpentry, chemical, weaving (Handloom and Powerloom), tailoring, chemical, paper, pottery and shoe making, will also be a part of the museum.

"Even certain landmark decisions related to the jail will be exhibited in the museum. Availability of phone facility for our inmates is one of them," he said.