This Diwali, Punjab prisons department is making its inmates happy and feel honoured by selling their handmade products in the market through various outlets.

As jails are also known as correctional facilities, so to make the inmates self-reliant, the state prison department is giving them vocational training in various fields and selling their products in the market. Forty percent of the profit earned goes to the concerned inmates’ account.

More than 15 jails in Punjab are teaching many of its inmates including women, to make decorative Diyas, candles, paper bags and sweets like Besan Ladoos etc and selling their products through jail outlets, fuel outlets and exhibitions. At a recently concluded Saras Mela in Mohali, such products were kept at a special stall which sold out like hotcakes.

Addl. DGP, Prisons, Arunpal Singh said that such initiatives motivate prisoners to excel in their given tasks. It boosts up their morale that they and their products are acceptable in society. He said they are also part of our society and it’s our duty to teach them new vocational courses so that they may start a new, dignified life after completing their imprisonment.