VELLORE: The Vellore Central Prison has been engaging convicts in various constructive activities including shoe making and running a fuel retail outlet, besides farming, to help them boost their savings and adapt to the mainstream on release. Now, sugarcane cultivation and fish farming have been added to the list of revenue earning initiatives.
“We have recently begun sugarcane cultivation and fish farming in the prison premises by employing the convicts,” said V Rukmani Priyadarshini, Superintendent of Vellore Central Prison.
She said vegetables including brinjal and tomato are being cultivated in the prison farm, apart from sugarcane. “About 300 sugarcane cuttings have been planted in the prison farm,” she added.
As many as ten convicts are employed for cultivating sugarcane.
The shoe making unit had been manufacturing shoes meant for men but recently the unit started making shoes for women as well.
The shoes manufactured in the prison unit are being sold to personnel of the police, fire and rescue services and prison departments across the state. Ninety convicts are engaged in shoe making. Each of them are paid wages amounting to Rs 10,000 per month.
Eighty pairs of shoes are manufactured per day. The first consignment of ladies shoes was dispatched last week, Rukmani Priyadarshini said.
The petrol bunk run by the convicts also earns handsome returns. Altogether, the prison registers sales of Rs 7-8 lakh per day.