Prisoners in Byculla women’s jail will soon be trained and offered certificate courses in office etiquette, operating as tour guide and basic fashion designing among others by the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University (SNDT). The faculty of SNDT, along with prison authorities and the Mumbai District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), conducted an orientation programme with the women prisoners earlier this week to plan the courses to be offered. The jail has over 250 prisoners, most of whom are undertrials. Officials said that a decision has been taken to start with offering a course on office etiquettes from March. This will give the women the opportunity to apply for jobs in corporate offices after they are released from jail. Other courses like learning how to be a tour guide, polytechnic, a basic course in fashion designing involving stitching and tailoring, gardening and yoga, too, will be made available soon, officials said. Medha Tapiawala, Dean, faculty of humanities at SNDT, said: “We offer over 100 certificate courses at SNDT. We will shortlist a few that can be made available within the prison premises. Since skill enhancement courses will require equipment to be taken to jails, like sewing machines and gardening tools, we are initially commencing our programme with service skills like the office etiquette course, which will train the women to work as receptionists and get other jobs at corporate offices. We have shortlisted a few other courses that we will be provided based on the assessment of what the women are interested in.” The courses are likely to be offered for a duration of one to three months, on the completion of which, certificates will be offered to the prisoners. The orientation session held at the prison was attended by SNDT faculty members, prison officials and DLSA officials, including Chairperson A Subramaniam. Officials said over 30 prisoners showed interest in some of the courses. “They also gave feedback on what they would like to learn, which may give them job opportunities once they are released. Based on the feedback, courses will be shortlisted,” said a prison official.
