Women prisoners making eco-friendly sanitary napkins in Nagpur Central Jail

The women inmates of the Nagpur Central Jail have started making eco-friendly sanitary napkins under a rehabilitation plan aimed at their skill development and empowerment, said a National Commission for Women official on Wednesday.

The 150-year-old jail has several programmes aimed at developing the prisoners’ skills to equip them with livelihood options after their release from the jail, said NCW member Alok Rawat, who led a two-member team to inspect the women inmates’ activities in the jail on Wednesday.

The low-cost sanitary napkins made by the inmates are sold at subsidised rates at the prison and the profit earned on them are put in the inmates’ bank account to be used after their release, said Rawat, the first male member of the NCW.

A few spinning wheels too have been installed in the jail through which the inmates produce handlooms, he added.

Among the prisoners, two women convicts inmates have also secured paralegal services training in the jail, equipping themselves to handle subsidiary legal matters, though not as a fully qualified lawyer.

“Owing to these inmate with training in paralegal matters, the prisoners don’t have to wait for the whole week for legal advice from their lawyers,” said Rawat.

The prison has about 78 prisoners out of which half of them are undertrials.

“There is no overcrowding in Nagpur Central Jail at present. It was observed that there are 78 women inmates as against the sanctioned strength of 142. Additionally, no women inmate was kept in solitary confinement,” he added.