THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After making successful ventures of pocket-friendly food production and textile business, the prison department is venturing into a new field – footwear manufacturing. The Central Prison will now be producing Hawai sandals on commercial basis using the manpower of prison inmates. The sandals will be sold under the label of Freedom Walk. Five inmates have been given training in this.
Director general of prisons Rishiraj Singh inaugurated the new footwear- manufacturing unit of the Central Prison at the Jail Cafeteria on Saturday. Young actor Chandunath G, who is the recipient of State Film Critics Award this year for the best debut for his role in the movie Pathinettam Padi, was the chief guest during the event.
Central Jail superintendent Nirmalanandan Nair said that the idea for a footwear-manufacturing unit was born out of thought to how to effectively utilise the staff in the post of shoemaker at the prison.
“Several decades ago, the prison department used to make uniforms and boots for the state’s uniformed forces, including the police. Even though that practice was stopped, the prison department continued to have the post of a shoemaker,’’ the superintendent said. Staff who currently occupies the post of shoemaker was in another district on deputation until recently. When the staff returned to the parent department, prison authorities thought about how to utilise his services effectively and came up with the idea of footwear- manufacturing unit.
A pair of sandals is priced at Rs 80. The Freedom Walk Hawai sandals will be available in the sizes 7, 8, 9 and 10.
The prison authorities said that the expansion of this initiative by introducing more varieties of footwear models will depend on the success of the Hawai sandals.
The prison department’s Freedom brand of food, mainly Chapati and Chicken Curry, is a huge hit among the people in the city owing to its cheap prices. The Central Prison here also has a textile showroom, where the production is handled by trained inmates. Besides this, the Central Prison here is also commercially producing hand sanitizers and soaps. Recently, they had launched a fuel station too outside the prison complex.