Yerawada Central Jail to have video-calling facility for inmates

The Maharashtra State Prison Department has started by providing it to women inmates, it will be extended all over the state

In a unique initiative for women inmates of prisons whom some families refuse to meet considering 'social norms', the Maharashtra State Prison Department has decided to provide them a video-calling facility. They will be able to speak to and see their kin who shy from meeting them. The facility will begin at the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune and then will be operated in Maharashtra. At present there are more than 398 women inmates at the Yerawada Central Jail, of which around 120 are serving imprisonment sentences, two are capital punishment convicts, and the rest are undertrials.

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Jail Superintendent U T Pawar said, "We started the concept of gala bhet (meetings) where the convicted inmates could meet their children. Many inmates have transformed and are working for their betterment; they also have hope that they can go and live with their family and earn by working. But we have seen that while women inmates usually call their relatives to meet them, they hardly turn up. We realised that it is due to social issues, and to overcome this hurdle we started the initiative."

Additional Director General of Police (Prison) Bhushankumar Upadhyay said, "We started this initiative from Saturday on a pilot basis. Inmates will be able to talk to their families via video calls. We have purchased a smart phone and will use it in the women's prison. This will help such women who can hope to join their families."

398 Number of women inmates in Yerawada Central Jail

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