GUWAHATI: A Bengaluru-based national voluntary organisation is hosting a conference here on Wednesday to prepare a roadmap for the welfare of prison inmates and convicts in India.
The national-level conference organised by the Prison Ministry India, which has been working for the welfare of prison inmates and convicts for over three decades now, will be the first in the Northeast and the twelfth across the country.
More than 500 delegates will converge at the conference to be held at the Cathedral Church Auditorium, Rukminigaon here. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal will inaugurate the conference at 11am.
The Northeast has over 8,600 under-trial prisoners (UTPs) languishing behind bars, according to figures cited by the organisation which collaborates with the governments of the states and Union Territories to rehabilitate prisoners through counseling, legal aid, job-centric skill development and education among others.
Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Peter Remigius, the former chairman of Prison Ministry India, said that delegates from across the country will interact with each other apart from exchanging ideas with government representatives and academicians in order to prepare a roadmap for the welfare of jail inmates over the next four years.
“Not all under-trial prisoners are guilty. There are many who cannot afford to get legal help or personal counseling/motivation for reformation owing to poor economic condition which is where we try to support through government collaboration. Over the past three decades, the governments, including Northeast, have been very supportive,” Remigius said.
The Northeast has 16 central jails and 74 prisons at the district level. Assam alone has 31 prisons.
Till the end of the year 2015, the region has had a total of 8683 under-trial prisoners behind bars of which 5696 (212 female) are in Assam, 862 (eight female) in Meghalaya, 608 (72 female) in Mizoram, 533 (35 female) in Manipur, 458 (24 female) in Tripura, 390 (seven female) in Nagaland and 136 (4 female) in Arunachal Pradesh.
“Apart from a series of interactive and brainstorming sessions, the conference will deliberate on issues concerning prison inmates and convicts. The theme of the conference is ‘You are not alone’ which intends to make the society aware that volunteers working for the welfare of the prisoners are not alone,” he said.
Established in March 1986, Prison Ministry India reaches out to thousands of prisoners languishing in all the 1401 prisons in India with the intention to release, renew and rehabilitate them. The voluntary organisation works under the guidance of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
There are over 4, 60,000 people currently languishing in jails across India.
Prison Ministry India has rehabilitated several thousand released prisoners during the last 26years existence.
“Around 6000 persons including volunteers, supporters and well-wishers have made a difference to the lives of many prisoners in our society. In Assam, we have reformed 100 prisoners till date Last year, 25 prisoners in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka excelled in academics after our volunteers groomed them. The objective is to equip them both psychologically and physically for a creative and fruitful post imprisonment period,” he said.