Maharashtra plans to rehabilitate convicts with petrol pump jobs

To help convicted criminals enter the mainstream after serving their sentence, the prisons department is keen to start petrol bunks in the vicinity of jails across the state. It plans to launch a pilot project at the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune before emulating the model to cover jails in Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Kolhapur and other units like the Paithan open jail in Aurangabad district.

"This is an effort to develop the skills of prisoners," said Vitthal Jadhav, special inspector general of police (prisons). The top prison official said that this would be on lines of the initiative by the Telangana Prisons Department which has established petrol pumps manned by male and female prisoners and has received a good response from motorists.

Jadhav said they have sent a proposal on the initiative to the state government for approval.

"This will prevent convicts from re-lapsing into a life in crime [due to lack of job opportunities and skills]," said Jadhav. The authorities will also rope in NGOs to train prisoners in the vocations that they are interested in, he said.

"These petrol pumps can be operated by prisoners in open jails with one of our staffers managing the cash. Once these convicts are released, they can seek similar employment elsewhere," said Rajendra Dhamane, deputy inspector general (prisons). He said that the facilities would be run by inmates of open units, which had been attached to all central prisons.

Once the project gets rolling, the petrol pumps can be started in jails which have adequate space and access to the main roads. The profits will go into the prisoners welfare fund.

The inmates of open jails, which have less security and more space for convicts to work in occupations like farming, are selected on the basis of good behavior and the possibility of rehabilitation after their release.

Similar initiatives have also been launched at other correctional facilities. For instance, at the Paithan open jail, the prisoners serve snacks like misal cooked on a wood-fired stove, samosas and tea at their 'Hotel Sagar Kinara.' At the Kalamba jail in Kolhapur, women inmates prepare laddoos to be served as prasad at the Ambabai (Mahalaxmi) temple in the town.

PRISON MATH

• Maharashtra has 54 prisons including nine central jails
• 19 class-I district prisons
• 23 class-II district prisons
• 3 class-III district jails
• 172 sub-jails, which also comprise 13 open prisons, including two for women (Ratnagiri and Byculla)
• 1 open colony at Atpadi in Sangli
• 1 Borstal school at Nashik