Your car could be partly made in jail

New Delhi: For the first time in the country, a jail will cater to the production unit of India’s leading car makers under a public-private partnership, providing training and better employment opportunities to the inmates. The director general of Delhi prisons Alok Verma on Friday inaugurated the small scale automotive workshop in jail number two of Delhi’s Tihar Jail. “The inmates will profit in both long and short term working here. They’ll be paid wages and will gain special work experience which will be very useful for them to rehabilitate themselves after completing their terms,” Delhi Prisons DIG and PRO Mukesh Prasad said. 

 

The manufacturing unit has been set up by Minda Furukawa Electric Pvt Ltd, a joint venture company between, Spark Minda, Ashok Minda Group of India and Furukawa of Japan. 

In this manufacturing unit, wire harness product, a key automotive component, will be manufactured by the convicts and will be supplied to the company’s key customer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, according to an MoU signed between MFE and Tihar Jail authorities on March 30. 

 

The inmates working in the unit will be supervised by technical professionals from MFE and will earn more wages in comparison to other inmates working in the jail. 

“We are hopeful of making the inmates able to earn their living once they are out of jail by gaining technical experience,” Mr Prasad said.  CMO of the Spark Minda Group, N.K. Taneja said, “This initiative will certainly produce a sustainable collaborative social business model, which will benefit the convicts of Tihar Jail, their families and victims also. We are certainly exploring such avenues at other places also”.  

 

Delhi Prisons DIG said, initially 30 to 35 inmates are working on this project which is likely to be increased in future. “As a next step, the Tihar Jail authorities have agreed to facilitate a bigger area once the production reaches its full capacity,” Mr Taneja said.