Weaving Behind Bars

     The “Weaving Behind Bars program was started in 1994. The objective of this project is to help rehabilitate and educate female inmates in the Tihar jail located in New Delhi. Twenty-eight women volunteered and were selected to join the weaving center. Each of the inmates is subsequently trained to weave a variety of items including, purses, hand bags, makeup kits, tapestries and other things.
     The group sells the items to different buyers in the region and also produces them for fellow inmates and prison workers. For their service, each woman receives a monthly stipend, which is put into her Prison Property Account. The weaving group is a popular activity among inmates. Last year, eight women in the program were released from their sentences and each open spot was quickly vacated by eager volunteers.
     The women in this program are happy the items they produce are desirable but most of their satisfaction comes from working together and learning a new skill while serving their sentences. Some of the inmates will be able to take their newfound skill once they leave prison, rejoin regular society, and make a decent living for themselves and their families. For most of the weaving members though, the program is a way to channel their energies productively. Many of the women say the program has been a healing therapy and helps ease the tense environment of prison life. The project also makes the participants feel like they are a part of something and gives them a sense of belonging. The group celebrates various holidays together and many of them have formed close relationships through the project.
     In all, 345 tapestries were woven in 2005-06. Books are kept on the sales, profits and expenses. This is where you come in. To keep this project going and help rehabilitate these women, the Giving World needs donations from compassionate people like you. With your help, the Giving World will be able to continue to provide raw materials and training for these women, who are trying to make a better life for themselves. We are happy to report that of all the women surveyed in the project, 20 % became skilled weavers, 65 % average and 15 % are still learning the basics.

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May 2007 Update

      Last month I had the opportunity to visit a very special project called "Weaving Behind Bars”.
      It is in the Tihar jail in New Delhi and it is a project that is designed to train women in the skill of weaving so that when they leave the jail they will have a livelihood to go on with.
      The women prisoners in this photo are—prisoners on remand—that means that their cases have not yet come to trial—and they will be imprisoned until they do. Some have already been in prison for 5 years—and are still awaiting their trials. Some of these women also have children—and according to Indian law they are permitted to keep their children with them until the age of seven.
      This fact—which in itself is both horrific and yet compassionate—has caused the creation of a day care within the school—with a section for infants and a section for preschoolers. Kiran Bedi—the world famous former head of the Tihar Jail—and a woman who has caused tremendous positive change in the Jail and the police force in New Delhi—has insisted that all of the children who are in the prison must attend this daycare—and has changed immeasurably the lives of these small children. They are in a clean bright environment—with caring and skilled teachers—they are getting love and lessons and hopefully a sense of better possibility to go on with.
      Concern India—the organization through which the Giving World helps to support this project—also sponsors another project to provide domicile and schooling for these children after they have outgrown the Jail.
       At one time in my life—I thought one of the most difficult things ever would be to be imprisoned—walking into the prison through the metal detectors, security guards and heavy closing doors the feeling of doom is omnipresent—yet inside there are women as real and as ordinary as you and me—the hope provided to the inmates within through this Weaving Behind Bars project—the knowledge that they are not forgotten—is a very proud thing.