BENGALURU: In a welcome move for jail inmates, the state government has revised their daily wages, hiking it to more than double the old one. The upward revision in the wages of prisoners has been made after seven years. The previous wage revision was made in 2011 and it was applicable only for three years. But the wage board was constituted only in 2015 and now, three years later, it has given its recommendations based on which the wages have been revised.
“The wage board studied the wages given to jail inmates in neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and compared those with wages given to prisoners in Karnataka. After going through various aspects, the board recommended to sort the class of employment into four categories. Earlier, there were only three categories — unskilled, skilled and highly skilled — and the board recommended including semi-skilled category to the class of employment,” an official in the prison department said.
The board recommended that `250 should be given as wage to highly-skilled inmates, while `225, `200 and `175 for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled inmates, respectively. However, `100 will be deducted for up-keep of the prisoners, including diet and clothing, and the remaining amount will be credited to the Prisoners’ Personal Cash (PPC) account.
“The government has accepted the recommendations made by the wage board completely and it has issued orders implementing the new wage structure with immediate effect. This will benefit around 1,500 convict and under-trial prisoners across the state,” the official added.
The conditions to pay wages include a prisoner working for eight hours to be eligible to get wages, and those with technical education, experience and good conduct to be considered for highly skilled category. “An unskilled inmate has to complete one year to get to the semi-skilled category while those in semi-skilled category have to complete two years to qualify for the skilled category. It requires three years for skilled inmates to be considered for highly-skilled category,” the official said.