Workers, not just inmates: Baking bread, polishing wood part of usual day at Tihar

What do you think is an usual day at Tihar jail? When DT recently visited the jail premises, the officials asked us, "Do you realise you are inside the jail now?" Tihar’s peaceful atmosphere is anything but what a person outside the jail complex would visualize. It is so out of sync with the typical idea of a jail, that one has to be forgiven for doubting whether this part of Tihar is a prison at all.Sunil Gupta, Law officer of Tihar jail says, "It is a jail, of course, but it is also more. The treatment of inmates at Tihar is focused on helping them prepare for a life after they are released."
Work begins at 8
And while everyone outside Tihar would think that criminals live inside the jail complex, what you find when you visit the complex are workers diligently going about their daily jobs. Tihar offers a correctional system and relative freedom of movement to the inmates. At 8am on the day of our visit, the complex was quite busy with 600 inmates working at the jail’s factory – worrying whether the bread has been baked enough or whether the wooden items should be polished as it was about to rain. The concern about maintaining the quality of products – food, furniture pieces, cloth items, stationery products – was palpable. Dressed in white clothes, the inmates take their positions at different units of the factory at Jail No 2 and work till 4pm every day.

Maintaining quality of products is important: Inmates
Whole wheat bread, cookies sweets and pethas are some of the products made by the inmates. One jail official told us, "It’s so fresh, just out of the machine, taste the biscuits, it’s so good. Where else will you find such fresh products?" An inmate said, "We have heard that these items are in demand and even jail officials like it – it’s encouraging."
A jail official said, "These items are quite popular even outside the prison walls. Not just Delhiites, but even foreigners visit our mart to buy these products." It’s not just bakery products that are made here. Some inmates load mixed chemicals to prepare phenyl, while others work at giant machines for spinning, weaving and designing shirts, manufacturing paper and making bags – all to be sold at the Tihar Haat. "It’s good, it keeps us busy," a jail inmate said with beads of sweat collecting on his brow.
Gupta told us, "We run the manufacturing enterprise inside the complex, the catalogue of the products surprises people – one needs to see it to believe the variety we offer." The authorities are also exploring the option of selling the products online – at present it is limited to just files and folders being sold on Flipkart.
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Money earned is money saved
Most of these convicts/workers have been here for over 10-12 years. Inmates under trial are not made to work at the factory. Whatever their professions might have been before they were sentenced, in Tihar they work in the kitchens making food items, or out in the sun making furniture. They may have little or no prior experience in the field they work in, but now they earn money doing these jobs. What they do with the amount? Jail officials said that the inmates either spend the amount in buying products from the canteen, or save some of it.

Dutt had earned Rs 38K making paper bags in jail, walked out with Rs 450
As a ‘semi-skilled worker’, actor Sanjay Dutt had earned a total of Rs 38,000 while serving his five-year prison term. But having spent most of it on daily-use items, he had taken home a much smaller amount when he was released from Yerawada Central Prison in February.
While reel life would have you believe that the ‘rigorous’ aspect of the sentence meant grinding millet or wheat by hand, Dutt made paper bags in prison. The pay of a ‘semi-skilled worker’ is Rs 50 per working day. The balance paid to Dutt was just Rs 450. After stepping out Dutt had said that he had handed over the money to wife Manyata, "like a good husband".