Want to buy personalised paper bags? Get them behind bars

Every morning, Habib Jaam and nine others gather around a table and start cutting newspapers and pasting them again to make sturdy paper bags. Susamma Kurian reports.

Every morning, Habib Jaam and nine others gather around a table and start cutting newspapers and pasting them again to make sturdy paper bags.

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The 30-year-old is not working at a factory or environmental organisation. He is serving time at the Thane Central Prison for possession of drugs. Jaam was deported to India after he was arrested and convicted in Mauritius. He has been at the Thane prison since 2007 and he now heads the paper bags project team here.

“We cut the newspapers, paste them along with the brown paper using gum and attach the strings. It takes around 4-5 minutes to make one bag. We make around 100 in a day depending on the time available. I feel good when I am busy making bags. It helps pass time and it's better than sitting idle,” said Jaam.

The paper bags project is one of the several initiatives such as making bakery items or teak furniture taken up at the central prison as part of its prisoners’ reform policy.

“This project was started around 1 ½ months back on a trial basis as part of the rehabilitation programme of the Maharashtra prison department,” said jail superintendent Yogesh Desai.

A proposal of the project was sent to the inspector general of prisons, Pune S K Singh, who sanctioned it. Arvind Sule, an artist from a special school in Thane, taught Jaam and the other inmates the art of making paper bags.

The project has attracted 3,000 orders. Neha Nimbalkar, who runs a boutique in Thane, has ordered 1,000 paper bags. “This project is eco-friendly and is also a source of income for the prisoners. I was a bit skeptical initially regarding the product. But the bags are sturdy enough to carry two to three products,” she said.