Tihar’s Jail Number 6 is home to over 400 women prisoners who engage themselves in running a full-time kitchen and an in-house beauty parlour and also attend tailoring and embroidery classes. It has helped them shed their past baggage and hope for a future where they can earn and gain recognition using the skills they are learning now.
Unlike the male prisons in Tihar that grab headlines for being a hub of extortion rackets, hitjobs and frequent inmate scuffles, Jail 6 has an “environment of sisterhood and harmony” and has not witnessed any major offence in the past eight months, officers said.
An undertrial in a kidnapping case, 37-year-old Payal*, has been lodged in Tihar for a year now. “The tailoring classes which taught her screen printing to applique work have kept her occupied; otherwise, I always kept worrying about my 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter who now live with my cousin,” Ms. Payal told The Hindu.
“The jail Superintendent and the staff encourage me to pursue tailoring professionally in the future if I am granted bail or acquitted,” she added.
Maria*, 33, a Nigerian under trial in an NDPS case, said she stitches her dresses and is passionate about designing clothes not just as a hobby but as a life skill to establish herself.
“I’ve been working on women’s clothing for four months and can now differentiate between fabrics, the size and the different types of womenswear,” said Maria, who has been in jail since last September. She now aspires to look for opportunities in men’s fashion wear and start her own business.
For Mozambique’s Gloria*, 30, painting classes helped her from slipping into depression in the last three years. A Psychology degree holder,
Swirling her brush over a black and white painting of a flower, Gloria said, is hoping to be cleared of all charges soon, after which she plans to take up a job and pursue painting as a part-time profession.
Cooking for prisoners
Inmates preparing pickles in the kitchen in Tihar Jail, New Delhi | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Inside the full-time kitchen, the inmates, mostly convicts, cook three meals a day for fellow male and female prisoners. “Their day starts at 6 a.m. The women inmates receive training before they become full-time kitchen employees. The food is also served to the undertrials,” said Head Matron Geeta.
Kiran, Deputy Superintendent of the jail, said that at the jail’s in-house beauty parlour, inmates are taught everything from threading and pedicure to skin care treatment. “We have all the equipment and beauty accessories available at the parlour,” she added.
When the women prisoners are busy in their daily activities in the jail, the staff takes care of 20 children in the jail’s crèche, where children aged above 3 years are imparted basic education.
“The crèche follows a bilingual curriculum and focuses on the holistic and physical development of the children,” Ms. Kiran said, adding, “Monthly meetings are held with the mothers and counsellors to assess the child’s overall progress and well-being.”
Counselling prisoners
Speaking about the diligent work of the women staff in the jail, Sandeep Goel, Director General (Prisons) said, “The women staff is working very dedicatedly. They understand the problem of women inmates and are empathetic towards them. The staff also takes a keen interest in the reformation and other welfare activities for the inmates. They also counsel the inmates who require counselling.”
Staying away from their families and children, many women prisoners suffer anxiety and they are put through counselling sessions for their mental well-being.
Superintendent Krishna Sharma, 49, who earlier worked as a Social Welfare Officer with the Delhi government before being posted here in November last year, said, “We have a lot of mothers who have been separated from their children due to their imprisonment but we ensure that the child is not left abandoned and provide all the necessary monetary assistance.”
Superintendent of Jail number 6, Krishna Sharma, interacting with her subordinates at her office at Tihar Jail in New Delhi | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
‘Risk-prone job’
Jail 6 is looked after by around 75 women staff. Most of them said that they have faced their fair share of challenges, both personally and professionally, while on the job.
Heading an infamous jail in the country’s capital is, for 50-year-old Ms. Kiran, a means of emancipation and breaking the glass ceiling among her peers. “A job in a jail is always frowned upon. But here it doesn’t feel like we are working among criminals. Most prisoners here have started life afresh and are working hard to make their stay productive... There are hardly any complaints of inmate violence now,” Ms. Kiran added.
Deputy Superintendent Raman Sharma, 56, who joined as an Assistant Superintendent at the jail 26 years ago, recalled how her family supported her in pursuing what people considered a “risk-prone job” and how her perspective of a jail changed after she started supervising the women’s prison.
“Even though minor incidents and scuffles break out once in a while, there is a feeling of sisterhood. This jail quells the preconceived notions of a prison and is an example of how women inmates, headed by female staff, can function independently,” Ms. Raman Sharma added.
Ms. Krishna Sharma, who was advised against joining work at the prison, said, “Unlike the male prison which sees various security issues, women prisoners experience more mental trauma but it rarely led to violence.”
