UP govt to make prisoners self-reliant before their release

Lucknow: When a prisoner comes out of a jail in Uttar Pradesh, he will no longer be dependent on his family for survival and will be able to fend for himself.

The Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission and Prison Administration and Reform Services have joined hands to train prisoners across the state in various skills to make them self-reliant.

Director, Skill Development Mission, Andra Vamsi said: “We have partnered with the prison department for training of prisoners in eight sectors including making of apparels, carpets, electrical works, construction and plumbing.

“We have already trained at least 1,129 prisoners in 11 jails of the state. Efforts are on to train the inmates of other jails. We have registered 3,914 prisoners from remaining jails.”

Vamsi said only those prisoners should be named for training who have at least three months left for release so that they can be acquainted with the entire syllabus.

“The enrolment target has been accomplished in 25 districts out of 68. These districts include Baghpat, Ballia, Barabanki, Bhadohi, Bareilly, Bulandshahr, Etah, Farrukhabad, Firozabad, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jaunpur, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Mainpuri, Mau, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Pratapgarh, Rampur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sitapur, Unnao and Varanasi,” he added.

DG, Prisons, S.N. Sabat said a special drive will be organised from July 31 to August 2, in coordination with the post offices of the districts concerned, to provide Aadhaar cards to prisoners.

A virtual meeting of jail superintendents, district coordinators, UPSDM and MIS managers was held and were instructed to meet training providers, district coordinators and MIS managers to remove bottlenecks.