Bengal prison inmates display hand-made jute products

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In a bid to portray their skill and creativity, 25 inmates from the suburban Dumdum Correctional Home on Wednesday displayed their hand-made exquisite jute products at an event named 'The story of the Golden Fabric from behind the bars'.

Products ranging from carry bags, water bottle holders to fashionable handbags made out of jute, or the 'golden fibre', flaunted a touch of innovation and got appreciated by the audience at the event.

According to the convenor of the skill development initiative, the ongoing training programme has evoked a lot of interest among the inmates of the correctional home (as jails are called in Bengal) as it works as a window to the outer world for these people behind the bars.

"We arranged this event to show the outer world, how we are engaging these people on harnessing creativity. All of them are phenomenal workers and very very energetic. They all wanted this training programme to be a long term initiative so that they can be in touch with the outer world through their work," said Chaitali Das, the Managing Trustee of the Rakshak Foundation, which organised the skill development training.

"I would like to showcase their work internationally as the products they made are niche. Also, jute is an eco-friendly product that would be in great demand all over the word in the coming days," she said.

The inmates present at the event were greeted by 15 young and underprivileged students of New Horizon literary centre. The young girls, dressed in yellow saree and floral ornaments in keeping with the theme of golden fibre, facilitated the inmates in the presence of Additional IG (Correctional Services) Bichitra Bhattacharya and other delegates.

"The event was to showcase their skill and progress in the training but it does not end here. The training would continue for another two months and we hope the products made by these wonderful artists becomes a brand on its own," Das added.

--IANS

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