Prisons earned Rs 150 cr in 2014

Prison factories are raking in the moolah and increasing proceeds from products made by inmates year after year with 2014 witnessing it crossing the Rs 150-crore mark.

In 2014, jails across the country have sold products worth Rs 151.86 crore compared to Rs 144.32 crore in 2013 and Rs 128.24 crore in 2012.

Tamil Nadu has the highest gross value of sale proceeds of Rs 36.97 crore earned by jail inmates followed by Kerala (Rs 21.43 crore), Bihar (Rs 15.47 crore) and Delhi (Rs 14.72 crore). In 2013, it was Delhi that was on the top with sale proceeds of Rs 27.92 crore.
Karnataka jails have sold products worth Rs 2.97 crore last year.

Other states with big returns in 2014 are Maharashtra (Rs  14.34 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 12.32 crore), Gujarat (Rs 7.48 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 4.30 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 4.24 crore) and Jharkhand (Rs 3.32 crore)

The value of goods produced per inmate was highest in Kerala (Rs 30,285.40) followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs 23,291.50), Chandigarh (Rs 16,709.40), Delhi (Rs 10,630.30) and Gujarat (Rs 6,266.3).

The report prepared by the National Crime Records Bureau said 63,256 prison inmates were provided with various vocational training in 2014. The maximum number of prison inmates was trained in weaving (9.85 per cent) followed by tailoring (7.8 per cent), agriculture (7.2 per cent) and carpentry (5.2 per cent).

Agri activities
The maximum number of inmates were trained in agriculture activities (1,851), carpentry (670) and weaving (1747) in Punjab. Maximum number of inmates trained in canning (136) and making of soap and phenyl (132) and handloom (7170) was in Madhya Pradesh.

The highest number of inmates was trained in tailoring in Gujarat (911).
“Training of prisoners in various vocational skills in the Prison Institutions has received a lot of importance in almost all the states/UTs. These training programmes provide opportunities for the prison inmates to engage themselves in fruitful pursuits during the term of their sentence in jails. Training for prison inmates not only affords value for one’s work but also makes the prisoners learn skills which would enable them to follow a vocation after their release from the jail,” the Prison Statistics India, 2014 report said.