New Delhi: Poverty and crime are linked to
each other as statistics from Asia's largest jail -- Tihar
Prisons -- reveal that 92 per cent of the prisoners lodged
there are from the lower income strata of society.
Of the 12,124 inmates lodged inside Tihar Prisons, the
monthly income of 92 per cent inmates does not exceed Rs 8,000,
according to the data for the year 2011.
"Around 75 per cent of the prison population comprises of
people who earned an annual income below Rs 50,000 at the time
of their arrest," Sunil Gupta, law officer and spokesperson
Tihar Prisons, said.
"Around 2,414 inmates lodged there were working as
agricultural labourers during their time of arrest and 536
were into farming their own land," he said.
Tihar Prisons also organised education facilities for
illiterate inmates.
"We found that there existed a direct nexus between
illiteracy, poverty and criminality. Aiming to curb their
attempt to commit crime again when out of jail, we introduced
the Padhao and Padhao programme. At least it provides them
functional literacy," he said.
Gupta said that the literacy programme organised inside
the prison helped the inmates as many of them even got job
offers in the first ever campus placement organised there.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 01, 2012, 15:02