Campus hiring gives prisoners a new life

Tihar jail is planning to go for a second round of campus placement interview of its eligible inmates by the end of this year.

Inspired by the success of the first recruitment drive that was carried out on February 25 in the prison premises, wherein 43 inmates were hired by different companies, authorities have begun preparations for another round of campus interview to be conducted after the month of June.

"We are planning a second round of campus interview of our next batch of eligible inmates. But this will happen only after the month of June when their annual exam results are out," Neeraj kumar, DG Tihar Prisons said.

"Many inmates have enrolled in different professional courses from IGNOU and the annual exam is to happen in June whose results will be out the following month. After that we will go for a rigorous training of those inmates who have qualified in the test and are eligible in all ways for undertaking a campus interview," he said.

Ten companies which have absorbed some of the convicts recently, have selected inmates for senior positions in their offices.

The pay package offered by some is also excellent. Some of the inmates have been hired for a pay package of Rs 500,000-600,000 annually.

"After the news of the first successful recruitment drive spread to different territories of the city, many companies have approached us expressing their desire to hire our inmates.

This has encouraged us to take another plunge," Sunil Gupta, spokesperson, Tihar Prisons said.

The DG said that the first campus selection was the brain child of jail superintendent No. 3, M K Diwedi.

"I saw that very less number of convicts took interest in enrolling in the courses offered by IGNOU. According to them, it would be a futile exercise to study as it would not help them get a job. It was then that I decided that I would not allow their education go waste and started talking to different companies for hiring them. It took time but then we attained success this year finally," he said.

Diwedi said, "After the success of the first placement, many companies have come ahead and asked us as to when do we plan to go for another. All will depend on the annual results to be out by June, July this year."