PRISON-PRISONER AND EDUCATION
Let me start with an incidence that happened eight years ago. You may consider it as a small incident, but the impact it made on me has been huge. It demonstrated the real impact of education on human life, specially the life of a petty criminal.
While on drive to a relative’s house, crossing a bridge, one of the wheels of my car got punctured. I got down and started looking for a repair shop on the bank of the river. Seeing a repair shop, I asked a boy sitting in it to help me, when another young man who was busy fixing a wheel of a motorcycle heard me, looked at me and came to me immediately. He touched my foot and said “Pranam”.
I looked at him with astonishment and tried to recall who he could be? “Madam, probably you are not recognising me,” he said.
“Yes, I am unable to recollect where have I met you, but your face appears to be familiar”.
He spoke without hesitation, “Madam I am Kishore (name chained), you had taught me in the jail. I cleared my Matriculate examination from National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) while in the jail and l was released from there soon after the examination results were declared. This happened during the summer vacations for you and hence you were not coming to jail to teach us. I could not bid you good bye at that time.
You will be happy to know that as l had promised you on a Teacher’s day, I have left the path of crime and started this shop of puncture repairing. In the beginning, I faced difficulties as the income was meagre but I had firmly decided not to indulge in wrong doings. I am earning quite well now. People treat me with respect and my parents are also happy with my transformation. I got married and have been blessed with two children who go to school. Madam, I don’t know, if you remember, during my jail time, I had requested for your phone number as I wanted to take your help in my study. You had said that in the jail you are not allowed to give your phone number to any prisoners and you cannot disregard the rule. You had promised me to give me your phone number after my release but I could not meet you after that. I wanted to tell you madam that as you taught me to do, I persuade boys of my “Basti” to shun path of crime and become good citizen of the country.”
He continued to talk and narrated many incidents of jail some of which were sad while some were very pleasant. I felt blessed for getting such a great present from a student on Teacher’s day. Could there be a greater and more prized present in the world for a teacher?
I thanked him for keeping his promise made to me years ago and congratulated him for his success. By this time his co-worker had fixed the punctured tyre.
I tried to give him money for the service, but he refused, even after a lot of persuasion, he was firm on not taking the money from me. As I was about to start my car, he came and said “Could you please give your phone number now?”. I promptly gave him my number and requested him to come to my house with his wife and children. He saluted me by touching my feet. All through my drive back home, I was thinking about Kishore. Had he not been educated, had proper educational environment not been provided in the prison the criminal Kishore would not have come out of the world of crime and definitely not been transformed into a shop owner, a useful and a respectable member of society.
It is true, education is a potent tool for making a man a real human. When a man lacks education, he gets surrounded darkness, unable to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad and even himself.
True education peels off the layers of ignorance and imparts a sensitive vision and prudence which makes one to recognise truth and reality with clarity. Education is a balanced and all round development of a person. Education develops a person physically, mentally and morally bringing in balance in one’s behaviour. It develops and brings out the qualities hidden or dormant in a person.
In the beginning of the human civilization man’s only focus was his food, covering for his body and shelter, but with evolution of an organised and safe society, education became important. It has been recognised as a basic tool of human development. It is said that an uneducated man is like an animal.
In view of the importance of education in human life, a campaign was launched to make the entire country literate and plans were made to extend the reach of education to one and all, to include every strata of our society. The open or distance education proved to be useful and a revolutionary medium. Accordingly, schemes were drawn to educate prisoners in the jail. For quick implementation of the scheme, teachers already working in Government schools were deputed in jails, I was amongst one of them to be deputed.
Teaching in jail is not an easy task. Creating a conducive environment is difficult and equally challenging. There are no arrangements as we have in schools. Neither is there any form of class structure nor there is any division of learners in accordance with their age or their level of knowledge and mental level.
The mental level of the prisoners coming from different background is different. Deployment of a teacher, class wise or subject wise is not feasible at present. As such the entire responsibility has to be undertaken by one or two deputed teachers. Adding to this the jail administration has its own limitations and minimal resources.
In spite of these problems, the Jail setup is a good opportunity to reach out to the inmates and educating them. With proper planning a lot can be achieved in the field of education.
Some prisoners are in deep depression and indifferent, some are hardened criminal not interested in reading or writing. Such cases warrants developing their interest and connecting them with the learning process. It is very challenging but it is not impossible. Handling such situation requires specially trained teachers where the personal skill and technique proves effective. The teacher has to assess and understand the knowledge and mental level of each prisoner and employ one’s wisdom sensibly during the teaching process. All prisoners are not uneducated, some of them are highly educated and when motivated properly can be helpful in educating the less educated.
In my personal experience, the highly educated jail inmate like to prove their usefulness in the Jail. It is generally thought that only those who have committed a crime are sent to Jail, but it is not so, many of them are under trial that means their case is under process in the court and many a times discharged of the charges, honourably acquitted by the court.
The question that arises is that why people choose to become a criminal and why a crime is committed. Criminologists say that:
(1) Some crimes are committed due to ignorance or bad company.
(2) Some crime are committed in a rage or due to uncontrollable anger.
(3) Some crimes are committed on being compelled by a situation.
(4) Some crimes are committed by people of unsound mind or unbalanced mental conditions.
(5) Some crimes are committed, driven by greed for money or for property.
(6) Some criminals adopt it as a profession. They commit all sorts of crime like robbery , contract killing etc.
Getting to the root cause is not difficult, as most of the crimes committed are due to lack of true education. “For dearth of education the qualities like sympathy, sensitivity, consciousness do not develop properly”.
As a result, man is unable to differentiate between good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, making him incapable of comprehending the consequences of his act and he blindly takes to the path of crime.
True education enables a man to differentiate between right and wrong, giving them the power to assess the result of an action and also shows alternative ways of solving a problem. During a moment of extreme emotion or extreme rage, education brings flashes of wisdom to one, restraining them and cooling off the situation. Education removes negative thoughts and directs the mind towards positive thinking.
To this context, I would like to narrate and incidence. It is about a prisoner let us call him Raju here. He was directed by Jail authorities to attend my class, he was included in the group of less educated persons. Though he used to attend classes regularly but he did not take interest in the class routine. One day I asked him “How much have you read, I mean up to which class?”
“What will you do you by knowing that, I do not want to study, I come here only for the sake of obeying the orders of jail administration, I am not interested in study.” He retorted very bluntly.
“Madam, he has read up to Class 5, he lives in my ward.”, said another prisoner sitting by his side hesitatingly. Raju refused to take writing or reading material from me. Often, away from my eyes, he used to tease the students by pricking them or by putting something into their ears. I was aware of his mischief, but I did not say anything and continued teaching students and told them the importance of education in our lives. Gradually his mischievous activities decreased and finally stopped completely. He started taking interest in the class and listened to me attentively.
Once, along with other students I asked him too, to write their Father’s name and there addresses. He promptly obeyed and complied. Since then he started showing his interest in studies, opened up to me and became very easy to handle.
He was hard working and a determined person, he prepared for further studies and within a year’s time he was ready and confidently filled the form for Matriculation examination, conducted by NIOS. Subsequently, surprised me by passing the Matriculation exam with good numbers. He continued his studies further and had filled the form of Intermediate examination but before it’s commencement, was released from the Jail.
Before leaving the jail he came to me in my class and requested me to pardon him for his earlier misbehaviour in the class and disrespect shown to me. “Had you come here to teach us earlier, many years of my life would have been saved” he told me with tear full eyes.
“I shall continue my studies and appear for the Intermediate examination from this centre and I will do nothing that will lead me back to this place. After going to my village I will teach the children there and motivate them to study”.
It was education that helped Raju to get rid of his negative thinking and inferiority complex It filled him with confidence and positivity and inspired him to become a responsible citizen of the society.
People often hate the person who commits a crime, looked down upon them and keeping a distance with all those who go to jail. We forget that all those who are sent to jail are not criminals, there are many an in culpable persons also who are confined on the basis of doubt. Some become victim of association or friendship, some innocent persons are also at times brought to the jail by mistake or compelled by circumstances. Such people feel really slurred and complexes grip them. Some of them become depressed, some react violently causing grave consequences. Such situation pushes an innocent person in the dark tunnel of crime.
For a female being put in the jail for any cause or reason is a a greater curse and remains so even after being honourably acquitted. Her dignity and purity becomes questionable, people often take such women not only as a criminal but also as an impure one. In such condition to bring her out of her mental trauma, depression and guilt feeling is difficult but it is necessary and very important. This can be achieved by arousing her interest in education. Thus not only her life could be saved but also she could prove herself useful for the society.
We forget that the prisoners are also human being with the same heart and human feelings as all of us. By arousing their consciousness and sensitivity in proper connected way and in proper direction they can be given a positive bent and can be distracted from unlawful path of crime.
The role of the teacher here is very significant and important. The teacher has to utilise his teaching technique very patiently, carefully and with sensitivity and caution. Their hesitations and complexes have to be done away by friendly and sympathetic approach. By proper counselling, their mind could be impregnated with confidence and the belief that the education and training they are getting will make their lives better and more useful for them and their family and that the society and would ultimately give the the respect they deserve.
Amongst all the difficulties and hindrances there is a streak of light too. There are some prisoners who wants to make use of the time and opportunity to enhance their qualification and skill, besides this there may be some educated prisoners interested in educating their fellow prisoners and thus be of help in the campaign. They need to be encouraged and given necessary support. In this connection it needs to be mentioned that government has introduced many training schemes for developing prisoners skill.
I was deputed in Central Jail for about 13 years where I worked for educating prisoners. During this period nine batches of students appeared for Matriculation examination and eight batches for Intermediate examination from NIOS. Their results where almost hundred percent. I hope they would be making best use of their education, outside the jail .
Education teaches art of better living and surviving. It is a powerful medium of change giving inner strength for facing a situation in a positive manner. It is one of the important tools for bringing down the number of crimes and criminals in the society.
Jyotsna Asthana
Educationist and Writer
Jamshedpur, Jharkhand
