Young offenders in Tihar jail to get vocational training for rehab

As imprisonment is aimed at reforming prisoners, Delhi jail administration has announced a slew of measures to provide facilities specific for young offenders between the age of 18 to 21. This will enable them to check the rate of recidivism which means the tendency of the criminals to reoffend.

With a view to prevent this the Delhi Jail Administration has come out with a structured programme in which various activities will be started for the benefit of these young inmates. Among these activities are teaching of moral lessons, conducting yoga classes, vocational training, educational classes, music classes, and computer classes.

Teachers who are connected with primary education and secondary education will take classes from Monday to Friday. In the classes for primary education there will be 36 inmates while in the secondary there will be 30 students.

Apart from this, sports teachers will also visit the premises to provide 50 inmates coaching in different sports like kho-kho, basketball, volleyball, and chess. To make them adept in a vocation which will help to get employment, ITI teachers will teach them computers and provide training to become electricians, automobile mechanics and plumbers. About 145 inmates are expected to participate in these training programmes.

Non-governmental organisations will be roped in to teach the inmates yoga, life skill training, music and dance, games, and textile designing. Spiritual teaching will also be a part of this package.

In Delhi there are 16 jails and the Central Jail No. 5 in Tihar which was commissioned in 1996 is for such young offenders and at present 990 inmates are lodged there. Earlier there was a separate ward for them but later it was decided to start a dedicated jail to prevent these youngsters from getting in close proximity to habitual offenders and becoming hardcore criminals.