Job placement for prisoners in Tihar

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) This is a ''campus'' placementdrive with a difference.

The potential employees are prisoners in Tihar jail, whohave received vocational and professional training whileserving their terms, once they are released.

In a first, ten top private firms and banks will conducta recruitment drive at the jail to pick suitable persons fromthe shortlisted 50 inmates who will figure in the placementfor jobs. Some of these inmates are highly educated with a fewof them having MBA and MCA degrees.

A jail official said a few of these inmates have beenconvicted for murder and rape and most of them are behind barsfor petty thefts.

The official said IDBI bank, Vedanata Group, SterliteFoundation, Agarwal Packers, Jindal Steel and Flex shoes areamong the companies which will carry out the "campusselection" of prisoners, who have received technical andvocational training while serving their term at the jail.

"Ten companies have agreed to absorb some of ourconvicts when they get released from the jail. They includeIDBI Bank, Vedanta Group and Agarwal Packers amongst others.

We have done the profiling of 50 professionally qualifiedinmates. This campus selection, which is happening for thefirst time, will be conducted on February 25," Sunil Gupta,law officer and Tihar Jail spokesperson, said today.

The jail authorities decided to go for the placementdrive after they realised that even after reforming prisonersand making them professionally qualified, they do not get ajob after release due to their criminal background, he said.

This job placement is being done to help the prisonersearn and live with dignity. It will also prevent them fromcommitting crime in the future, he said.

Gupta said, "All these 50 prisoners have completed theireducation from IGNOU. They are highly qualified. Some are postgraduates, while others are MCA and MBA qualified." PTI SWTGSN