Gujarat government is exploring whether such an option is possible within existing legal framework.
Can education or skills acquired while undergoing jail sentence be linked to early release from prison? This is an option the Gujarat government is exploring with the aim to encourage skill development among prisoners in jails across the state.
“We are exploring if it is possible to link education and skills acquired by prisoners while serving jail sentence with their early release,” jail minister Dileep Sanghani told reporters.
He said that opinion had been sought from the law and home departments about whether such a system was possible within the existing legal framework and if it could be adopted. Sanghani said that the state government had initiated several steps for effective rehabilitation of prisoners after they had completed their jail sentence. “We are encouraging the prisoners to pursue further education and to acquire other vocational skills while in jail. These skills can help in their rehabilitation in the mainstream when they are released from jail,” he said further.
Sanghani said that vocational training provider centres had been set up in different jails in the state and skills such as computer training, masonry, pottery, farming, among others were being imparted to prisoners. New courses were being planned for the inmates, he said, adding that a large number of female prisoners were also covered under the skill development programmes.
“There is huge demand for police bands. Jail inmates can be trained to play as a band which will help in their rehabilitation,” he cited as an example.
According to officials, centres of open universities were being opened in jails. They informed that the number of jail inmates enrolling for studying in open universities had gone up manifolds due to constant encouragement from the state government.
“From an average of 16 to 60 in the last ten years, the number of prisoners appearing for exams in Ambedkar Open University rose to 2,794 in 2011, while that in Indira Gandhi University rose from 20 to 38 in the last ten years to 321 in 2011,” they informed.
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