Micro industrial activity in the Special Prison for Women here has diversified with the commissioning of a bakery unit inside the sprawling jail.
Machinery required for manufacturing certain bakery items have been supplied by a private donor to enable women prisoners take up production.
A group of six women convicts have been engaged in the manufacture of sweet and salt biscuits, vegetable, and egg puffs in the bakery unit to start with.
Prior to venturing into the new activity, the handpicked convicts — all aged below 40 — were trained for 15 days in making a range of bakery items by a faculty member from the Tamil Nadu State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Thuvakudi.
The training was imparted to the select women prisoners through the Rural Self Employment Training Institute of the Indian Overseas Bank.
The manufactured bakery items were supplied to the prison bazaars in Tiruchi, Madurai and Palayamkottai for sale, prison authorities said. The raw material required for the manufacture of bakery items was being procured by the Prisons Department.
Jail officials said plans were afoot to make bread, bun, and cup cake in due course at the bakery unit. Wages would be paid to the convicts engaged in the bakery unit and deposited in the prisoners’ cash property account.
Officials said prisoners were involved in making pickles and garments. Pickles manufacture commenced about three months ago and were supplied to the prison bazaars at Madurai, Palayamkottai, Puzhal in Chennai, and Tiruchi.
The garment unit in the prison, accommodating over 125 prisoners, makes nightwear. Plans were afoot to start a prison bazaar near the Special Prison for Women here soon, say officials.
The objective of starting these micro-level industrial activities was to keep the prisoners especially convicts serving long terms engaged in some productive vocation which would earn them wages and keep them occupied without giving room for negative thoughts, said an official.
Besides Tiruchi, Special Prison for Women is also situated at Vellore and Puzhal.
