Telangana shows what aggressive marketing can do

Suresh Dharur in Hyderabad

The country’s newest state Telangana has unleashed measures for economic empowerment of prisoners. From aggressively marketing the items produced in-house to running petrol filling stations, the prisoners are making a mark in the fields of their choice and churning out revenues for the prisons department. From steel chairs, wooden furniture, soaps, pooja material, carpets, bed sheets and towels to bakery items, the inmates are encouraged to take up economic activity in a big way. 

“We have chalked out a vision to transform jails into production and skill development centres. Our goal is to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2025 by selling prison-made products. We also want to achieve Rs 2,000-crore turnover through sale of petroleum products at fuel outlets run by the released inmates,” says director general (prisons and correctional services) VK Singh.

There are plans to open outlets in almost 10,500 villages across the state where jail products can be sold. This would provide employment to 10,500 women through the outlets and around 2,000 jobs in the petrol bunks and other ventures.

“We want to open 100 petrol bunks in the next two years that will be run by prisoners released after serving sentence and supervised by retired government employees. By the end of this year, we will be opening around 50 such petrol bunks,” an official said. The state prison department has formulated Vision-2025 document covering reforms in jail administration, crime reduction, economic growth, employment generation and social services.

“Our idea is to make the jails the centres of economic growth, employment generation and social service,” the DGP said.

“We have achieved such expertise in the field of management and administration that we have written to all IIMs asking them to study the radical changes brought in our prison department. We want to compete with the best managed prisons in the world,” Singh says.

Last year, the Indian Oil Corporation had handed over operations of a petrol bunk at Uppal in the city to the prison department. Also, a steel manufacturing unit was set up at Open air jail at Cherlapally on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. More than 100 prisoners helped in setting up the unit. The officials said that both government and private parties placed orders worth Rs 20 crore for manufactured furniture.