 |
    
    
|
|
Weaving
Behind Bars
The "Weaving Behind Bars"
program was started in 1994. The objective of this project is
to help rehabilitate and educate female inmates in the Tihar jail
located in New Delhi. Twenty-eight women volunteered and were
selected to join the weaving center. Each of the inmates is subsequently
trained to weave a variety of items including, purses, hand bags,
makeup kits, tapestries and other things.
The group sells the items to different buyers in the region and
also produces them for fellow inmates and prison workers. For
their service, each woman receives a monthly stipend, which is
put into her Prison Property Account. The weaving group is a popular
activity among inmates. Last year, eight women in the program
were released from their sentences and each open spot was quickly
vacated by eager volunteers.
The women in this program are happy the items they produce are
desirable but most of their satisfaction comes from working together
and learning a new skill while serving their sentences. Some of
the inmates will be able to take their newfound skill once they
leave prison, rejoin regular society, and make a decent living
for themselves and their families. For most of the weaving members
though, the program is a way to channel their energies productively.
Many of the women say the program has been a healing therapy and
helps ease the tense environment of prison life. The project also
makes the participants feel like they are a part of something
and gives them a sense of belonging. The group celebrates various
holidays together and many of them have formed close relationships
through the project.
In all, 345 tapestries were woven in 2005-06. Books are kept on
the sales, profits and expenses. This is where you come in. To
keep this project going and help rehabilitate these women, the
Giving World needs donations from compassionate people like you.
With your help, the Giving World will be able to continue to provide
raw materials and training for these women, who are trying to
make a better life for themselves. We are happy to report that
of all the women surveyed in the project, 20 % became skilled
weavers, 65 % average and 15 % are still learning the basics.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2007 Update
Last month I had the opportunity to visit a very special project
called "Weaving Behind Bars”.
 It
is in the Tihar jail in New Delhi and it is a project that is
designed to train women in the skill of weaving so that when they
leave the jail they will have a livelihood to go on with.
The women prisoners in this photo are—prisoners on remand—that
means that their cases have not yet come to trial—and they
will be imprisoned until they do. Some have already been in prison
for 5 years—and are still awaiting their trials. Some of
these women also have children—and according to Indian law
they are permitted to keep their children with them until the
age of seven.
 This
fact—which in itself is both horrific and yet compassionate—has
caused the creation of a day care within the school—with
a section for infants and a section for preschoolers. Kiran Bedi,
the world famous former head of the Tihar Jail—and a woman
who has caused tremendous positive change in the Jail and the
police force in New Delhi—has insisted that all of the children
who are in the prison must attend this daycare—and has changed
immeasurably the lives of these small children. They are in a
clean bright environment, with caring and skilled teachers, they
are getting love and lessons and hopefully a sense of better possibility
to go on with.
 
"Concern India," the organization through which the
Giving World helps to support this project, also sponsors another
project to provide domicile and schooling for these children after
they have outgrown the Jail.
At one time in my life I thought one of the most difficult things
ever would be to be imprisoned—walking into the prison through
the metal detectors, security guards and heavy closing doors the
feeling of doom is omnipresent—yet inside there are women
as real and as ordinary as you and me. The hope provided to the
inmates within through this Weaving Behind Bars project—the
knowledge that they are not forgotten—is a very proud thing.
April |
|
|
