To help women prisoners increase their knowledge and change their attitude towards life, the Thane jail authority on Friday morning started a library for them.
To help women prisoners increase their knowledge and change their attitude towards life, the Thane jail authority on Friday morning started a library for them. While the authority has initiated several activities for women prisoners till date, officials felt that reading books would boost their morale.
Jail Superintendent H.R. Jadhav said, “For the past more than six years, men and women prisoners have got to engage in several activities. Women have learnt many crafts, painting, making greetings etc. We tried to give them a platform and with the help of many others, we were able to start our own shop to sell things made by these prisoners by end of 2014. We are getting a good response from customers in Thane city.”
“Three months ago, a few of our officers, teachers who train our prisoners, suggested that we needed to improve their reading abilities which would change their mindset and increase their knowledge. Some women here are 23 to 30 years old; for this age group, reading will be very helpful. We shared this thought with Madat Sanstha and they immediately agreed to give us 300 books. We segregated the books and created a library for the men one month ago. Now, with the help of Rotary Club, Dadar, we have received 500 books for women so we decided to create a specific library section for them,” he added. The books are about women achievers, worriers and businesswomen and include some biographies.
Mr Jadhav further said, “Jail authorities have inaugurated kiosk machines that will keep prisoners updated about their money. With the help of their fingerprints, they will get information about money they have earned till now. It’s like ATM machines so they can remove the money they require.” Plans are afoot to install television sets for women prisoners.
