A webinar for the Prison Ministry Volunteers of North-East India (PMI-NEI ) held on October 31 discussed various correctional skill-building programmes such as carpentry, blacksmith works, tailoring, plumbing, bakery, footwear making, leather goods, data entry operations, desktop printing, electrical jobs, beauty parlour and soft-toy making.
Jointly organised by United Christian Forum North East India (UCFNEI), Hope Charitable Foundation (HCF) and North East Solidarity (NeS), the online meeting discussed ways to enhance the employability potential of the prisoners after their release through these vocational training programmes, thereby help in their rehabilitation.
The chairman of the meet was Bishop Thomas Pulloppillil and the event was moderated by Sr. Jobina Varghese, coordinator of PMI-NEI. The welcome address and invocation prayer was delivered by Rev. W. C. Khongwir.
In his exhortation speech, Kukheswar Gogoi, the mission coordinator of Guwahati Baptist Church, spoke at length his long experience in the prison ministry as the very ministry of Jesus.
The resource person of the day was Pranitha Timothy from Chennai-based Justice and Hope, a charitable organization that works to end domestic violence, child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
In her presentation, Pranitha reflected on words of the Father of the Nation Mahatma, “Crime is the outcome of a diseased mind and jail must have an environment of hospital for treatment and care.” She shared her organisations’ focus areas, which included human trafficking and its prevalence, the rescue of victims, the legal response to human trafficking, the restoration of survivors and victim compensation and the community-based approach to preventing human trafficking.
Elaborating further, she added, “India shares a universal view that sentence of imprisonment would be justifiable only if it ultimately leads to the protection of society against crime. Incarceration must motivate and prepare the offender for a law-abiding and self-supporting life after his release. It is an undeniable fact that imprisonment deprives the offender of liberty and self-determination. The prison system should not be allowed to aggravate the suffering already inherent in the process of incarceration”.
Later, the question and answer session was moderated by Sr. Magdaline Sohtun and Sr. Maria Joseph. The meeting concluded with a final prayer and benediction by Dr. Rini Ralte.