Jail products to get brand name

Hyderabad: Soon a slew of products ranging from bakery items, cookies, sweets, furniture, carpets, bed sheets, toiletries, coir products and garments made by prisoners besides organic vegetables grown within the sprawling prison complex will get a brand name. The Prisons department with the help of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and SS Steels, Hyderabad is planning to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with retail majors like the Reliance and Heritage to market these products under the brand name ‘My Nation’.

Talking to The Hans India, the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services V K Singh said the demand is so high for the products manufactured by the prisoners that the revenue generated by selling these products has helped the prison department earn good revenues. It has even stopped taking grants from the State government to buy raw materials.

“We achieved financial independence through this as some of the revenue is reinvested back into the programme. We wrote a letter to the State government asking for its permission to purchase vehicles on our own for transportation of goods from the revenue generated,” the official said.

“Our main target is to escalate department’s revenue and hone the skills of the prisoners. We started supplying furniture and steel items to BHEL, Ramchandrapuram besides all other consumer items to police canteens, government departments and canteens stores department of Defence. We also had a tie-up with SS Steels to market our chairs and utensils,” Singh said, adding that the Prison department was planning to sign an MoU with Reliance, Heritage and other companies soon.

“The soap and bed sheets manufactured here were not up to the required standard of the retail majors, so we have tied up with NIFT to help improve the design, colour and quality of the bed sheets. Even the packaging and perfume used in soaps needs to be worked on and we got the feedback from the stall set up at Numaish,” Singh said.

The project is innovative with an approach that blends the skills of the prisoners and guarantees huge revenue. When asked about marketing of organic vegetables, the DG said they did not lose hopes though it was a difficult task in Telangana because of water scarcity. “Floriculture is what we are very much focused and view as high-growth business. There are about 6,000 prisoners in all the districts and only convicts, who are about 1,000, are engaged in manufacturing products and not the under-trial prisoners,” the DG added.

Singh said apart from direct sales of the products through the stores at Chanchalguda and Cherlapally jail, one can also make purchases through phone and e-mail. The numbers for placing the orders are: 040-24411148, 9494632146 and 9494632087. Orders can be sent to mail id at [email protected], where the products would be delivered at doorstep.

By:Victor Rao