Over a lakh prisoners in Telangana educated under 'Vidhya Dan' programme; prisons department aims for 100 percent literacy

Hyderabad: More than 1.13 lakh illiterate prisoners have been made literates under the Telangana Prisons Department’s ‘Vidhya Dan’ programme over the past four years, a top official said on Wednesday. The department is aiming at 100 percent literacy for jail inmates and reduction in crime through various reformatory activities like ‘Vidhya Dan’, ‘Unnati’ and ‘Mahaparivarthan’ schemes, Director General (Prisons and Correctional Services) VK Singh said. [caption id=“attachment_4772411” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Singh launched the programme in July 2014 soon after assuming charge with a slogan of ‘Thumb in Sign out’ which aimed at making the inmates at least sign instead of giving their thumb impression as was done earlier prior to admission into jail. The programme has made 1,13,909 illiterate prisoners literates, he said. The ‘Vidhya Dan’ programme educators have been used as Vidya volunteers, to make them more professional to teach illiterate prisoners, Singh said. The prisons department in coordination with the State Resource Centre (SRC), conducted Training of Trainers (ToT) programmes. SRC members have visited all central prisons, district prisons and special prisons for women of Telangana and provided ToT to educated inmates, Singh said. They have submitted feedback including that jails in Telangana were really reforming prisoners and their goal of emptying jails might become a reality, Singh added.