Raising the wage bar

Earlier this week, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet decided to raise the wages paid to prisoners who work in jail farms or make products like blankets and so on. The wage increase, effected after 11 years, would benefit both convicted and under-trial prisoners. When state Cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh announced this at a news conference in Lucknow, a journalist joked that now going to jail would be beneficial. To which the ever-witty Singh retorted, “Zaroorat pad sakti hai” (the situation may well arise).