Yerawada Central Prison hosts the launch of Prerna Path, a prisoner rehabilitation and reformation project, by allowed 150 male inmates to meet and play with their children

Pune: There wasn’t a dry eye at the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune last evening. Even if for a mere hour, inmates held on tight to their little ones, soaking in every moment. The premises hosted a happy reunion between 150 male inmates and their children, numbering 212, as part of an inspiring prisoner rehabilitation and reformation project — Prerna Path (path to inspiration).



Fathers and their children couldn’t contain themselves on meeting each other, some for the first time

The initiative, launched at the Yerawada prison yesterday as a pilot project, allowed the prisoners to meet and even play with their children. As per the existent practice, inmates meet family members in a special enclosure — the Mulakaat room — where they are separated by steel bars. Female inmates are allowed to keep very young children with them.

The happy reunion

Yerawada jail authorities said the chosen inmates — some of whom are on the death row, others face life imprisonment and a few are serving a seven-year term — who have been craving quality time with their families had been looking forward to the day.

“In the morning itself, the inmates out on their best clothes and shaved their beards. Some even dyed their hair to look presentable to their children. Every few hours, they kept asking when their children would arrive. We allowed them to get out of their prison uniform for this special day,” said IGP (Prisons) Bhushankumar Upadhyay.

When the moment finally arrived, they couldn’t restrain their emotions. The children were brought in a bus around 5 pm. As the children met their fathers — some of whom were incarcerated before the kids were even born — eyes welled up in pain, joy and shock.

The fathers hugged the children for as long as 20 minutes and then chatted with them. Although the time permitted was 45 minutes, the reunion went on to close to an hour.

One of the selected fathers echoed every inmate’s feelings. “I feel like this is all a dream. I want time to stand still. My daughter is in Std VII and I gave her a book on the Gandhian school of thought for her birthday next month,” he told mid-day.

Kids recount the pain

Prior to the get-together, the children were taken on a picnic at Savitribai Phule University and then for an interaction with astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. A cultural event was also organised for them at the Annabhau Sathe Auditorium in the city, where some of the children let out the pain of living with the taint of their fathers’ imprisonment. Books and school stationery, too, were distributed among them.

A 16-year-old girl from Solapur, whose father is serving a life term, told the gathering that the last time she had met her father, she was to young to even remember him. “For the last 10 years, I wanted to meet him. I have been teased and bullied as the child of a criminal, but I know that my father is innocent. I will redeem his name and honour by becoming an IAS officer,” the Std IX student said to a thundering applause.

The children from Solapur, Ahmendagar, Aurangabad and Pune districts were selected with the help of two Pune-based NGOs — Bhoi Foundation and Aadharsh Mitra Mandal.