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Director General of Prison (DGP) Home Guard and Civil Defence, Rupin Sharma, handing out a certificate to a prison inmate at a certification ceremony recognizing cooking and culinary skills in inmates on Tuesday at the Central Jail in Dimapur.[/caption]
Staff Reporter
Dimapur, May 23 (EMN): Parliamentary Secretary for Jail Hukavi Zhimomi on Tuesday observed that even convicts can be assets to the society if they reform their lives. It is true that mistakes are a part of every individual’s life. Still, he told them not to make ‘mistakes’ a ‘habit.’
Zhimomi was addressing a ceremony that recognized skills in cooking and culinary art of inmates, besides recognizing vocational skill and capacity of security and police personnel. The event was conducted on Tuesday at the central jail in Dimapur.
During the event, 50 of them i.e., 18 jail inmates, 24 warders from various districts, 3 Home Guards personnel and 5 Nagaland Police personnel received certificates after three months of intensive training in various extracurricular skills.
The prison reforms training programme were undertaken in collaboration with a local resource group Pinnacle Skills.
Because of fund constraints, the legislator claimed, the Nagaland government was unable to ‘bring in development works.’ However, he lauded the Director General of Prisons (DGP) Home Guard and Civil Defence, Rupin Sharma, for the commendable job of ‘managing to bring in development of the department in his capacity.’
On a lighter note Zhimomi remarked that the Nagas have ‘lost work culture’ and hence they now need to be dragged into the prison to learn about it.
The legislator told the prison inmates that even leaders and ‘big shots’ are ‘culpable’ and have a record of being under detention. Nonetheless, he said that mistakes are a part of every individual’s life. Still, he ask them not to make ‘mistakes’ a ‘habit.’
“If you utilise your stay in prison constructively and reform yourselves you can be an asset to you community” heartened Zhimomi to the inmates.
On behalf of the Nagaland government, secretary for Home C Kikon assured to examine proposals and programmes that come to the government. Kikon said that the Ministry of Home Affairs had directed all Union Territories and states to chalk out programs for prison inmates. He has appealed for support from the department’s officials.
Honest work, honest earning, honest reformation
During the day, DGP Rupin Sharma appealed for contribution from the department and nongovernmental organisations for a two-room restaurant where the inmates can play a role in earning money and inculcate work culture during their stay in prison.
Sharma informed also that the department was planning to open a bank account for prison inmates where 70% of revenue generated through their vocation will be credited to their respective account.
“Prison inmates have a stigma from the society which also intimidates their confidence. Therefore they should be imparted with skills during their stay in prison so that they can work independently once they are rehabilitated from prison,” asserted Sharma.
The police official pointed out directly that in the state of Nagaland most of the government employees’ hours in the office go unutilised constructively. Therefore, he called upon the officials to be diligent and support the inmates so that they can support themselves when they move out into the society. Sharma informed that the next vocation program will be on tailoring. Further, another speaker, Pinnacle Skills’ CEO Dr. Yan Murry said that funding was always an issue in organising such vocational programmes. Nonetheless, with support from Tata Trusts, the programme achieved reasonable targets. Dr. Murry assured commitment to the Prison department that Pinnacle Skills will continue to support all future training events.
