Asia’s largest prison, Delhi’s Tihar Jail, has taken its first step into online retailing, offering goods over the Internet made by inmates including murderers and kidnappers.
Tihar, notorious for its overcrowding and tough criminals, is home to a bakery which produces 13 kinds of cookies and a vast paper-making unit that turns out high-end stationery under the TJ brand name. Its workshops, manned by 714 specially selected convicts, also turn out doormats, shirts, black shoes, mustard oil and polished benches that are used in Delhi government offices.
In the previous financial year, its annual revenue passed 110 million rupees (US$2.5 million), and after opening stores across the Indian capital, the prison authorities have now launched www.tihartj.nic.in.
PHOTO: AFP
“In the last year and a half, we realized that we have good production capacity, so it was time to think of the marketing,” said Rajesh Goyal, the superintendent of the factory and the brains behind the Web site.
“We hope that this Web site will increase our visibility as more and more people in Delhi are using the Internet,” he said, adding that overall output is set to increase by 60 percent this financial year.
“Initially we are aiming to deliver our products to customers in Delhi, but if international orders come, we will be happy to supply them,” he added.
PHOTO: AFP
The visually appealing Web site showcases food, furniture, paintings and clothes, all made by convicts. Computer-savvy prisoners write the html coding for the Web site, which lists each item made in the factory, along with pictures and a comprehensive price list.
Currently, items can only be ordered by phone, but authorities say that by December, customers will be able to buy and pay for products online. Pradeep Sharma, the deputy superintendent of the factory, says the TJ brand was launched 10 years ago to give inmates a sense of self worth.
“People come to jail with negative thoughts, then they are troubled by memories of home — many get depressed, show suicidal tendencies, so we want to keep them busy and give them work based on their level of skill,” he said.
All the workers get a daily wage of between 40 and 52 rupees, with additional financial incentives given to those who work past the allotted 48 hours a week. Jobs in the factory are not open to all prisoners, only those deemed “low risk” by the authorities.
“Five percent of the guys who come here are beyond repair, so we don’t let them near the factory equipment. We can’t let them handle tools like chainsaws and drills,” Sharma said.
“Sixty percent of our inmates are not criminals by profession,” he said. “They have either been involved in accidental deaths, stealing because of greed, or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Furthermore, they are very repentant.”
To men like Mohammad Shahid, now in the 16th year of his 20-year sentence for sheltering terrorists, the factory is the only source of hope.
“I did something wrong, I didn’t know better,” the 49-year-old former shopkeeper from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh said. “I am happy working. It’s better than running a shop.”
The most senior convict at the factory, Shahid trains the other inmates and keeps records of the work done in all the units.
In the day before this reporter visited, the factory turned out 472 desks, 1,200 loaves of bread, 620 muffins, 373kg of cookies, 45m of cloth, six blankets, as well as paper, envelopes, mustard oil and 36 shirts.
One of the most high-profile convicts in recent memory, 35-year-old Siddharth Vashisht (also known as Manu Sharma) — a politician’s son convicted of killing a bartender in Delhi in 1999 — also supervises the running of the factory.
“The work is the only thing that keeps you going. Your mind stays fertile. It helps you stay in touch with reality,” he said.
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