Why do we need those in power or in
the business of affecting and impacting other people’s lives to divert their
attention to the condition of the prison inmates?
Because slowly but surely the prison
inmates, who hitherto remain shut and shunned, by the community they have lived
in, are being recognized. A burning question is why do we really need to focus
on this neglected and redundant section of the society?
It is because ultimately these very people
whom we have relegated to the background from the face of the land on which we
so-called pious citizens live, will ultimately, return to this very society
that we all love very much.
They are criminals and they deserve
to be kept away from the law abiding citizens for the good of the society was
our argument. But wait how many of us really believed that? Because, one is
only guilty till he is proven to be so (after a court pronounces him/her to be
so).
So, many of us are very lucky that we
escaped the powerful law; we managed to manipulate the system as per our
convenience and those unlucky ones caught trapped in the vicious circle of “Guilty
till proven to be otherwise”. How many times we have all broken the rules,
found means and ways to escape the net of law and found allies who helped us to
get respite from the very system about which we have lamented always.
Still, it is a new start, an
auspicious beginning that someone at the higher authority has thought to give
another view of those who are behind bars and give these men and women a chance
to showcase their talent to the society and ask for another chance at re-living
their lives. They are repentant and ready to reform themselves and asking their
fellow beings to help them in the process of changing themselves. Most of them
are very young and have been a victim of the circumstances in which they found
themselves and one weak decision and moment of desperation led them to the
prison. But now they are ready to redeem themselves. What they want is an
opportunity to prove themselves.
They are now reformed and ready!
They feel that their moment of
reckoning has come and what more than TIHAR Kala Abhiyaan 2017 - A chance for
all of those who have been engaged in the process of changing themselves with
the active support of the prison authorities and the NGO’s, who have been
striving relentlessly for all these years to help these inmates adopt and learn
new behaviour and skills for a new life after their release from jail.
So, it is the responsibility of all
the society members and those in power to make attempts of supporting these
fellow beings, who were led astray by wrong conscience and choice that landed
them behind the imposing walls of the prison. But now, they are ready to break
their shackles and want to cross over and make new beginnings in their lives. They
are not asking for alms or any sympathy.
They are asking to be accepted, to be
recognized for their talent and their willingness to seek a new living. Can we
not move ahead from our bias and prejudices and help them seek a life, a chance
at seeing them in new light. For this they need the support and empathy of the
entire society. They will need love, acceptance, respect and trust from all of
us. They will seek another chance of redemption to reclaim their life that they
had once wasted for a reason that affected not only their but entire family’s
very being.
The prominent society members, policy
makers, civil society members, police/prison officials and judiciary members
along with common citizens will have to make concerted efforts in this mission
of re humanizing and restoring life. The thinking has to change and we have to
move beyond the mental bars that we have constructed in our mind set about the
prison inmates and come together to reshape the lives that were blemished with
poor retrospection.
*Submitted by Ms. Renu Nag, who works
with India Vision Foundation (IVF) as a Head Research & Training, IVF is a
23 years old not-for-profit organization engaged in the reformation,
reintegration and rehabilitation of the prison inmates and welfare of their children/families
of Delhi, Haryana (Gurugram/Faridabad) and Uttar Pradesh (Dasna) Prisons.
