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.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS