Bengaluru: In the dark rooms of the prisons of Karnataka, the ‘light of literacy’ has spread, around 6329 prisoners have become literate in the 54 prisons of the state and written history. The State Prisons and Correctional Department’s innovative experiment of teaching literacy to illiterate inmates who have committed various crimes like robbery, murder and extortion has been successful and has brought a new light to the lives of the inmates.
Education is important for the conversion of inmates in prisons. Thus, in order to make the illiterate prisoners (sentenced and under trial) well educated, a unique programme called ‘Navachetana’ was started in 2022 in collaboration with the Department of Mass Education under the slogan ‘From Learning to Change’. Sources said that 6329 inmates have become literate in these prisons.
There are a total of 54 jails including 9 Central Jails, 24 District Jails and 21 Taluk Jails in Bengaluru Parappana Agrahara, Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharawad, Ballari, Belagavi, Mangaluru, Shivamogga and Vijayapura. There are 5,100 inmates (sentenced and under-trial) in Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru, out of a total of 16,000 inmates in state prisons. It is the department’s mission that every inmate should learn to read and write.
Education of inmates has been given priority in prisons since the beginning. There are separate teachers for this. Many have even obtained masters and degrees from the Open University from prisons. Even some educated people end up in jail on criminal charges. But 40 percent of the total prisoners in the state are insecure. The goal is to achieve 100 percent literacy in prisons. This is why a letter teaching programme was formed in collaboration with the Department of Mass Education. State Prison Department SP Suresh informed that the necessary teaching tools were supplied by the Education Department.
At the time of admission to the jail, the profile of the under-trial and sentenced prisoners is obtained. It also shows their educational qualifications. An average of 40% of illiterates were found in this. All the prisons faced the problem of availability of teachers. Then it was decided to teach the alphabet through the prisoners in the jails. Similarly, the resource persons trained the first educated inmates how to teach the illiterates. Later, Akshara Jyoti was given by well-educated inmates to fellow inmates. This is like a six bridge course. At the end of this six-month learning period, the prisoners who had learned the alphabet were tested. Officials said that certificates have also been distributed to six thousand prisoners who have passed it.