With a gleam in her usually calm eyes, 40 year old Parvathi, busies herself in crafting rakhis filled with a feeling of forgiveness for her brother because of whom she has been languishing behind bars for the past 10 years. Parvathi (name changed) is among the 30 inmates who are participating in a three-month long designer rakhi-making workshop organised at the high security Tihar jail here.
Coordinated by a non-governmental organisation, the rakhis thus made are sold at branch outlets across the country and the proceeds are used to pay wages to the prisoners and also contribute to other activities for correction and rehabilitation of the prison inmates by the organisation. For the inmates in the central jail, the process of rakhi-making is an opportunity to bless the brothers in the world outside the prison boundaries with their prayers.
"We take care that each rakhi is made clean and beautiful to convey the love and dedication of each sister, who buys it, towards her brother," says Simra (name changed), a 39 year old inmate. Simra belongs to a conservative village in Rajasthan and says that her brother doesn''t feel nice to get a rakhi tucked from her while she is behind the bars.
She awaits the day of her release and says the first festival she will celebrate after that is ''Rakshabandhan'' with her brother. The rakhis - a symbol of brotherly love - made by the prison inmates are being sold from branch outlets of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (DJJS), an organisation that has been working for the reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners for the last 16 years.
"Life behind the bars affects the psychology of these people. So, we take help of spiritual, cultural and vocational tools in order to stabilise their mindsets and then channelise their otherwise diverted energies into a positive and constructive direction," Swami Vishalanand, the NGO''s spokesperson told PTI. Rakshabandhan is a symbol of pious love between a brother and a sister.
"Rakhi is pledge to love and security that a sister and a brother take respectively. I don''t consider what my brother did to me.
I pray that this festival leaves good memories for all the sisters," says Parvathi, who has been in prison for the last 10 year on the charges of drug smuggling. .
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