I am terrified of jails. So when Asha Berkeley asked me to do a site visit to Samarpan Foundation, I thought I had finally the opportunity to get rid of my terror.
Samarpan Foundation has many projects across the country and one of the projects is in Tihar jail where they work with the inmates (both undertrials and convicts). They started this project by helping out the family members of the inmates (getting them ration, providing assistance for education, house rent). After a year or so, the welfare officer at Tihar Jail called them in for a discussion and asked them to work with the inmates. They have been working at Tihar Jail for the past 4 years.
Tihar Jail, which is largest jail in India, has 7 jails. Jail #2 houses the convicts while jail #4 (the largest) houses both undertrials as well as convicts. Jail #7 houses the teen convicts. There is one jail within the complex for women prisoners. Entry is restricted. I could enter only because the volunteer spoke the superintendent and got permission for me to accompany her into the complex and observe her work. You cannot take any money or mobile or anything into the jail complex. The guards were very nice because they knew the Samarpan Foundation volunteer. I was, therefore, ignored and could observe the work without being bothered.
The foundation volunteers do faith healing for the inmates. What I understood from the volunteer was that the healing involves removing negative energy from the patient and infusing positive energy into them. The healing started right at the entrance when the guard recognized the volunteer and asked her to heal him.
The jail complex itself is very clean and neat. The jail is woefully understaffed and therefore, the inmates work in the office premise in various capacities. The convicts are trained in various skills depending upon their interest. Within jail # 2, for example, there is a meditation room, a music room, a library, a literacy/education center, a radio station which plays music through the day. There is also a dispensary but the doctors seem doing nothing other than handing out painkillers. The superintendent of one of the jails told me that they very badly need dentists or dental clinics as well as spectacles for many of the inmates. They also need lots of computers both for training purpose as well as for official work. One of the jails has 6 computers which were donated few years back and 4 of them are now unusable. So computers is one of the major requirements.
The faith healing has instilled as sense of confidence in the organization both amongst inmates and the personnel manning the facility. The inmates open up to the volunteers and tell them their problems. Very often the pain they feel has a psychological connotation. They are often worried about their family especially those who come from economically poor background. When the foundation takes care of their family they begin to trust them and tell them about their problems. Today for example, one person was worried. He had a headache. He has been having it for few days. You see his release papers have not come. It turns out that LG of Delhi has issued orders to release undertrials who have been put in prison for a very long time. This particular person qualifies for that and he is now worried that his papers have not come. So the volunteer healed him and said the papers will come soon. He went off relieved. He just wanted somebody to listen to his problem.
Samarpan foundation also has conducted inter-jail quiz competition which was evidently a success because one of the assistant superintendent was describing it with great enthusiasm. The foundation is planning to now to work with the teens but I could not visit them as the superintendent did not give permission.
One thing I realized was that the smooth functioning of the jail depends a lot on the superintendent. If they are good and enthusiastic, a lot of reform can take place. If they do not care, nothing gets done. The reform of Tihar jail was of course started by Kiran Bedi and it is still continuing.
Samarpan Foundation has many projects across the country and one of the projects is in Tihar jail where they work with the inmates (both undertrials and convicts). They started this project by helping out the family members of the inmates (getting them ration, providing assistance for education, house rent). After a year or so, the welfare officer at Tihar Jail called them in for a discussion and asked them to work with the inmates. They have been working at Tihar Jail for the past 4 years.
Tihar Jail, which is largest jail in India, has 7 jails. Jail #2 houses the convicts while jail #4 (the largest) houses both undertrials as well as convicts. Jail #7 houses the teen convicts. There is one jail within the complex for women prisoners. Entry is restricted. I could enter only because the volunteer spoke the superintendent and got permission for me to accompany her into the complex and observe her work. You cannot take any money or mobile or anything into the jail complex. The guards were very nice because they knew the Samarpan Foundation volunteer. I was, therefore, ignored and could observe the work without being bothered.
The foundation volunteers do faith healing for the inmates. What I understood from the volunteer was that the healing involves removing negative energy from the patient and infusing positive energy into them. The healing started right at the entrance when the guard recognized the volunteer and asked her to heal him.
The jail complex itself is very clean and neat. The jail is woefully understaffed and therefore, the inmates work in the office premise in various capacities. The convicts are trained in various skills depending upon their interest. Within jail # 2, for example, there is a meditation room, a music room, a library, a literacy/education center, a radio station which plays music through the day. There is also a dispensary but the doctors seem doing nothing other than handing out painkillers. The superintendent of one of the jails told me that they very badly need dentists or dental clinics as well as spectacles for many of the inmates. They also need lots of computers both for training purpose as well as for official work. One of the jails has 6 computers which were donated few years back and 4 of them are now unusable. So computers is one of the major requirements.
The faith healing has instilled as sense of confidence in the organization both amongst inmates and the personnel manning the facility. The inmates open up to the volunteers and tell them their problems. Very often the pain they feel has a psychological connotation. They are often worried about their family especially those who come from economically poor background. When the foundation takes care of their family they begin to trust them and tell them about their problems. Today for example, one person was worried. He had a headache. He has been having it for few days. You see his release papers have not come. It turns out that LG of Delhi has issued orders to release undertrials who have been put in prison for a very long time. This particular person qualifies for that and he is now worried that his papers have not come. So the volunteer healed him and said the papers will come soon. He went off relieved. He just wanted somebody to listen to his problem.
Samarpan foundation also has conducted inter-jail quiz competition which was evidently a success because one of the assistant superintendent was describing it with great enthusiasm. The foundation is planning to now to work with the teens but I could not visit them as the superintendent did not give permission.
One thing I realized was that the smooth functioning of the jail depends a lot on the superintendent. If they are good and enthusiastic, a lot of reform can take place. If they do not care, nothing gets done. The reform of Tihar jail was of course started by Kiran Bedi and it is still continuing.
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