Rajasthan prisoners cook for migrants, stitch masks, make sanitiser

Stepping forward to help in the fight against coronavirus from behind the high walls of their jails, hundreds of Rajasthan's prisoners are busy cooking food, stitching masks, packing protection kits and manufacturing thousands of litres of sanitiser each day.

About 400 inmates of various prisons in the desert state cook for 1,500 to 2,000 people, many of them migrant workers on their way home but stuck because of the lockdown or homeless people housed in shelter homes. They also help meet the demand for sanitiser, masks and packed dry rations from government departments NGOs and hospitals.

The sanitiser and the masks are marketed under the brand name Aashayein (hope).

Officials of the state's prison department said inmates of about 50 central and district jails in the state make a simple meal of dal, roti and a vegetable for those left without any jobs and money. Besides, masks are prepared in 10 jails and sanitiser manufactured in the Jaipur Open Jail.

"The prisoners are aware of what is happening around the country and have extended their wholehearted support,
"In the last 15 days, the prisoners have produced nearly 1.25 lakh masks. Of these, nearly 50,000 have been used by the jail staff and inmates and the remaining have been supplied to various departments of police, government offices, hospitals and NGOs, Kumar told PTI
About 3,000 to 4,000 litres per day of sanitiser has been prepared so far in the last fortnight. "Some of it is used for internal consumption while the rest is marketed under Aashayein, which is an enterprise of Rajasthan prisons."