From beauty parlours to farming, prisoners in India’s jails are channeling their time into creative new outlets

Prisons in Kerala offer beauty services; Maharashtra prisons engage in farming activities for self-sustainability and revenue generation.

Four prisons across Kerala have opened beauty parlours. The first one, Freedom Xpressions at Central Prison, Kannur, was opened in 2016 and offered the public all cosmetics-related services, like hair cut, hair wash, hair dyeing, shaving, spa and facial. The then Jail Superintendent S Santhosh said that the parlour would also have a separate wing for senior citizens, where older customers suffering from diseases like Alzheimers and diabetes will get special services like manicure, pedicure and foot massage by trained inmates. Since then, beauty parlours have been opened in Open Prison in Cheemeni in 2018 (The F Men), Central Prison in Poojappura in 2019 (Freedom Looks), and Central Prison in Viyyur (Cute and Style). Of these, the one in Viyyur is no longer functional, since the prisoners employed there were shifted to open prisons, and couldn’t be replaced by other trained inmates, whose offences were too heinous. They’re now waiting to train a fresh batch of inmates before resuming services. The rest are running smoothly; Freedom Looks in Poojappura has actually registered a revenue of ₹20 lakhs in the last two years.

The first iteration of a restaurant in Tihar Jail opened in 2014. Called Tihar Food Court, it was a small, modest affair offering vegetarian snacks like samosa, kachori and even a deluxe thali. The restaurant had a seating capacity of 45 people; and was serviced by a small staff of seven convicts, mostly convicted murderers who had proven good behaviour. In 2017, the restaurant was given a makeover by the owners of the restaurant China Fare in Khan Market: the new avatar is called Tihar Kitchen, and offers non-vegetarian options like seekh kebab and rogan josh alongside Chinese delicacies. It even delivers to locations within a 5 km radius of the prison.

A number of prisons, most prominently in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, carry out farming activities within their premises. In Maharashtra, 31 of a total of 60 prisons conduct year-round agricultural activities, producing vegetables, fruits and foodgrains, most of which are used to feed prisoners themselves. Anything left over is sold in local markets. The state’s prisons collectively own 596 hectares of agricultural land, and in the last financial year (Apr 2023 - Jan 2024), clocked an income of ₹3 crore 15 lakhs. Among these, the prisons with the maximum land under cultivation include Paithan Open Jail (158.77 hectares), Yerawada Open Jail (103 hectares), and Visapur Open Jail (37.80 hectares). Some of them have been experimenting with different practices: the Yerwada Open Jail is using the ten drum theory to grow vegetables like eggplant, cabbage and chilli on 15 acres, which has resulted in 80 percent reduction in the use of chemical fertilisers, and improvement in quality of vegetables. Similarly, Nashik Road Open Jail has implemented a seed production program on 10 hectares of soyabean in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation Ltd (MAHABEEJ); expected income is ₹19 lakhs.

Pioneered in India in 1949 (in the guise of the Model Prison in Lucknow), open prisons have become more popular over time, touted for their reformatory potential. An open prison is essentially any penal establishment where prisoners are not locked up in prison cells and serve their sentence with minimal supervision and perimeter security. The Model Prison Manual classifies open prisons into three types: Semi Open Training Institutions, Open Training Institutions and Open Colonies, of which open colonies are the most free, allowing inmates to live with their families and earn wages at par with outside society. Though most states have started experimenting with the concept, Rajasthan in particular has the maximum number of open prisons (31 out of a total of 77), with a total of 1019 inmates. Of these, the Shri Sampurnanand open camp in Sanganer is touted as a model to emulate: convicts live there with their families, go to work within a 10 km radius and their children attend neighbouring schools. The whole arrangement is also more cost effective: a comparative study of Jaipur Central Prison (a regular jail) and the one in Sanganer revealed that while the cost per prisoner in the former was ₹7094, in the latter it was only ₹500.

neha.vm@thehindu.co.in