Painting for prisoners

Prisoners will be encouraged to take up painting as a hobby or profession at workshops to be held over 12 days at six correctional homes in West Bengal.
The 'Art Workshop Tour' will be conducted by 16 prisoners of Alipore Central Correctional Home who have learnt painting besides artist-sculptor, said Chitta Dey, who is the founder of 'Flight to Harmony Foundation', an NGO that organises art camps in correctional homes.
Among the prisoner mentors, there are 11 male and 5 female prisoners with ten of them serving life sentences, including Mohammed Rashid Khan, who has earned accolades for his painting skills in prison.

"We have started this program to encourage prisoners to take up art and painting as a pastime. And, if any prisoner wants to take it up as profession after his sentence ends, this will be of great help," correctional administrative minister H A Safwi told PTI.
"These art classes which started off as an experiment to help prisoners to stay away from stress and depression have become very popular among prisoners irrespective of age and sex," Dey said.
The workshops would help prisoners to share their experiences with prisoner artists from other correctional homes.
"Art is a result of abundance of imagination. Till date art workshops were confined in and around Kolkata. It's time to strengthen our team and widen the perspective. I am sure that this will give prisoner artists a platform to explore the world of creativity," IG Correctional Services, Ranvir Kumar said.

The workshops would be held from May 30 to June 9 at Berhampore, Malda, Balurghat, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar correctional homes.