AHMEDABAD: Giving convicts a chance to reform themselves once they finish their sentence, the Prisoners Employment Exchange is up and running with their names, skills, qualifications and other details needed by companies in Gujarat to offer them a shot at making an honest living.
Under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), eight companies have shown interest in hiring prisoners if their qualifications match their requirements, said jail officials. The government platform has details of about 260 convicts who have been released from all 29 jails across the state in the last year.
There are about 1,5000 prisoners lodged in state jails across the state. Of these, around 9,500 are undertrials.
Additional DGP (Jails) K L N Rao said that this scheme is only for convicts who were imprisoned for two years and less. "Prisoners who have been given life imprisonment are not included in the scheme. We have already started making a list of prisoners to be released in 2021,"Rao said.
He added that they will periodically review how many prisoners have taken up jobs through the exchange.
Rao also said that apart from the PEE scheme, they are also planning for an annual campus interview of convicts who are to be released soon. "The project is in the pipeline," he added.
Two more open jails
According to jail officials, there are four open jails in the state: Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Junagadh and Amreli. "We are planning to open two more in Surat and Rajkot where the numbers of convicted prisoners are more. Only convicted prisoners with good conduct are allowed to be kept in open jails. They are paid for the work they do there," said Rao.