Karnal district Jail has adopted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s skill India initiative in which prisoners are getting special training for manufacturing Khaki socks for about 55,000 cops of Haryana police.
Though the target is big, the jail authorities are confident of achieving it with the help of its prisoners. Also two hosiery machines have been imported from Ludhiana and the work will start within a week.
Officials feel the initiative taken by director general of prisons Yashpal Singhal will make the inmates self-reliant once they walk out of prison.
Jail superintendent Sher Singh said, “Training of the first batch of 10 prisoners is about to complete, and socks will be available from next week.”
“The decision was taken following the demand of socks for policemen, for which the government and state police department had to depend on private manufacturers. Also we need not spend money on marketing of the product as we already have huge demand of socks in our department,” he added.
He said, “Besides ensuring income to prisoners, the move will make them skilled. They can continue the same work to earn their living after completion of their sentence.”
{{/usCountry}}He said, “Besides ensuring income to prisoners, the move will make them skilled. They can continue the same work to earn their living after completion of their sentence.”
{{/usCountry}}Apart from this, Karnal jail will ink a pact with a private joss stick (agarbatti) manufacturer. Prisoners of Karnal jail will make joss sticks, while the private firm will provide raw material to us and will also sell the produce in the market.
Of the 2,355 inmates in the jail, only 100 are involved in different works like carpentry, welding, cloth making and blanket making for government and other jails. Besides, they make footmats for a private manufacturer.
“As the number of working inmates is low, we are going to start new initiatives under skill India to make more inmates, including women, as skilled workers,” Singh added.