In a positive news for the inmates from prisons across the state, the Maharashtra State Prison Department has expanded the scope of its unique initiative ‘Gala Bhet’ — which loosely translates as embrace without barriers.
According to a circular issued by the office of Additional Director General of Police Amitabh Gupta, who heads the Department of Prisons and Correctional Services, the scheme, which was only applicable to children under 16 years old of convict men and women, will be also applicable to grandchildren and siblings under 16.
Moreover, the initiative has also been extended to women undertrial inmates. Officials said that children below age of five of both undertrial and convict women, are allowed to stay with the women during their incarceration
Started in 2016, under the Gala Bhet initiative, the convicted inmates were given a chance to meet their own children under the age of 16 years without the barrier of a wall of partition between them. During these meetings the convict inmates spend time with their children and share snacks in meetings organised inside prison premises, generally in the canteens or assembly halls.
Officials have said that from the beginning, the initiative has been applicable only to the inmates satisfying certain conditions of good behaviour and was not applicable to inmates about whom there were security concerns for example those convicted for heinous crimes and those housed in high security cells. These conditions will remain applicable under expanded scope too.
Speaking in this regard, a senior prison officer said, “These meetings have received overwhelming response from the inmates. It gives them a chance to connect with the children, spend some time with them and has also helped the inmates understand issues faced by the family better. The expanded scope will certainly help them connect more with the family.”
Maharashtra has nine maximum security central prisons, 31 district prisons and 19 minimum security open prisons. The latest order will be applicable to all these prisons.
