Karnataka - Bidar   

Skills to help them earn a livelihood

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: Women inmates being trained in tailoring in the Bidar district jail.

BIDAR: Nandini Basavaraj is an undertrial lodged in the Bidar district jail. She neither has any property nor anybody to call her own. The only job this unlettered woman knows is to pluck weeds in the fields.

Sometimes she used to get upset thinking that after her release from jail, she would have to go back to an alienated world. But now she has hope. She has been trained by the Bidar District Central Cooperative Bank in tailoring along with her fellow inmates.

The District Jail Superintendent, S.M. Patil, said: "Of the 210 inmates in the jail, 27 are women. The micro-credit department of the DCC Bank offered to train these women. We provided them with two sewing machines and other logistical support. The bank sent its resource persons to the jail every day for three weeks. After the training, the women are happy. They are confident of finding a livelihood. They know that they do not need to be agricultural labourers dependent on the vagaries of the monsoon."

According to the chief resource person, Shoba, the inmates were trained not only to make clothes for daily use, but also trendy clothes for children and teenagers. Such value-added products will fetch them more money, she said.

Training for men

S. Charlu, Director of the Rural Development Self Employment Training Institute, said, "We are happy with the success of this programme. We are now planning to train the male inmates also in some livelihood skills." The institute coordinated the training programme.

According to H. Veershetty, DCC Bank Deputy General Manager (Micro-Credit), the bank worked jointly with non-governmental organisations such as Samaj Seva Samsthe in providing motivational and entrepreneurship training to the women.

Shridhar P.K., Micro-Credit Development Officer, said imprisonment lowers the self-esteem of an individual. This affects his confidence, even after his release. The main challenge, therefore, was to boost the morale of these women. "I think we have succeeded," he added.

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Skills to help them earn a livelihood

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