Nagpur Central Jail to mark Prisoners' Welfare Day on Gandhi Jayanti with songs and skits

Prisoners' Welfare Day will be observed with a series of programmes at Nagpur Central Jail this year as well. The day is marked every year on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. Several cultural programmes have been lined up to give inmates' art a stage and to awaken positive thinking in them.

In looking at crime and criminals, Mahatma Gandhi gave importance to reform, change and humanity. His view was that no one is a wrongdoer by birth. Circumstances, the social environment and various other reasons can lead a person to commit a crime. So, instead of merely hating the offender, the humanity within the person should be awakened and the person given a chance to change, which was the basic message of Gandhi's thought. This humanist outlook gives Prisoners' Welfare Day its special significance.

The motto of Nagpur Central Jail is "Reform and Rehabilitation". In keeping with it, various activities are run for the all-round development of inmates. Skill development training, cultural programmes, training in the arts and guidance programmes are held so that inmates can bring out their good qualities while serving their sentences, gain confidence and, after release, stand again in the mainstream of society as responsible citizens.

For this year's cultural programme, inmates have prepared songs they wrote themselves. Songs based on the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri are also being readied. Short plays carrying social messages will be staged as well.

The programme will give inmates a chance to show their hidden talent, and the ideas of the nation's great leaders will also be remembered. The initiative is an effort to bring change to inmates' lives through art, culture and positive thinking.

Jail Superintendent Vaibhav Aage, Additional Superintendent Deepa Aage, Deputy Superintendent Shridhar Kale and senior jail officers Bhosale, Nimje, Lomte and Shinde have worked hard to make the programme a success. Rohan Bachhav did the key work of training the inmates for the cultural programmes.

It has been stated that the event will promote inmates' hidden talent and create a sense of confidence and positivity in them. The initiative will give the message of showing inmates the path to a new life, strengthening the process of reform and rehabilitation. It is seen as an important step towards bringing inmates back into the mainstream of society, carrying forward the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi's humanist ideas.