Edu Dept to rope in jails for furniture, uniform

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 19

Taking cognisance of a report published in The Tribune (‘Prisons as industry hubs’, November 19), the Punjab Education Department has extended its cooperation to the Prisons Department to make it self-sustainable by 2018.

Krishan Kumar, Secretary, Education, has mooted a proposal to the Home Department to involve the Prisons Department into manufacturing school furniture for its 22 lakh students and school uniform for its 14 lakh students.

The move, apart from easing off the financial crunch of the Jail Department, will also provide abundant rehabilitation opportunities to the jail inmates which includes both convicts and undertrials.

“We have to undergo a very tedious tendering process every year to buy school furniture and printing paper for our students. We also pay Rs 400 to each of the 14 lakh students as reimbursement to buy school uniform. Taking care of these two major demands will alone make the Jail Department self-sustainable in a few years from now,” said Kumar, adding that the department had also offered them to cook mid-day meal for over 5,000 students studying in urban government schools and also to manufacture school ties.

In a letter written to the Home Secretary on Sunday, the Education Department had also sought viability from the Prisons Department to produce over 14,000 metric tonnes of paper to print school education books and answer sheets for the academic year starting in 2018.

“This year, we could not provide textbooks to our students on time due to a delay in procuring printing paper. With no tendering process to follow with the Jail Department, the process for procurement and printing will cut short hence ensuring timely delivery of books to our students,” Kumar added.

The Sunday Tribune in its report had highlighted how due to lack of funds and a proper marketing channel, the prison industry was lying in a shambles for the past many years.

Pre-primary wings for women inmates’ kids   

The Education Department has decided to open pre-primary wings in various prisons in Punjab. While informing this, Krishan Kumar, Secretary, Education, said the children of women inmates were left out in the first phase. "We had sought details from the Prison Department about the number of children in each jail. We will open pre-primary wings at places where it will be found necessary," said Kumar, adding that the District Education Officers had to implement the orders at the earliest.