First ITI for prisoners to come up in Parappana Agrahara Prison

Bengaluru: Those who have been imprisoned for criminal acts can look forward to a meaningful life and they will soon get professional ITI education. A proposal submitted by the State Prisons Department to the Government of India to set up an ITI at Parappana Agrahara Prison to provide professional education to the prisoners to help them earn a decent living has received a positive response.

Sources said the ITI has been sanctioned and, in a few months, the prison inmates will get the benefit of ITI education. It will be the first college in the State.

The proposed ITI will function on the same lines as a government college in the State. In the first phase, a six-month short-term course and a two-year vocational education courses (ITI, Electronics) will be started. Those who complete the course will be given a certificate. Sources in the Department of Prisons said the minimum two-year course was set for 8th graders.

Among the inmates in the prison there are some who have passed SSLC but dropped out of PUC. The course will also be accessible to undertrial inmates who may spend at least two years in jail without bail. A senior official said that the undertrials will have the great opportunity of acquiring a vocational training that could help them lead a decent and dignified life after leaving the jail.

Hundreds of inmates are already undergoing plumbing training in collaboration with the Rudset Institute since the first week of May. The officer said that 24 prisoners who have got life sentence have been trained in painting buildings.