COVID-19: After Kerala, Rajasthan jail inmates make sanitisers, face masks

At a time when finding labour is difficult than ever, inmates of several jails have stepped up for producing face masks and sanitisers in this hour of need due to an acute shortage of the commodity owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

After Kerala jail inmates produced face masks and hand sanitisers, now prisoners of central and Jaipur Open Air jails in Rajasthan have been tasked with producing protective masks and hand sanitisers to fight coronavirus.

In Jaipur Open Air Jail located in Sanganer area, about 70 prisoners are on the job after an MoU between the jail department and a sanitiser manufacturing company.

According to Additional Director General (Jail) NRK Reddy, the private firm approached the jail administration for the production of hand sanitisers as it was not getting the workforce due to the coronavirus lockdown.

“We have signed an MoU with the company and jail inmates are working for the cause and also earning livelihood for their families,” Reddy told PTI.

The company installed equipment at the jail premises, provided the raw material and oriented the inmates to do the work. The inmates will be paid Rs 350 per day for the job, he said.

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Besides this, state authorities have asked inmates of six central jails to stitch double-layered face masks, which are being sold at Rs 8 per piece. For this, the inmates are getting Rs 140 to Rs 150 per day, the officer said.

“About 400 to 500 inmates in the jails across the state are involved in production of 6,000 double-layered masks per day,” Reddy said, adding that the masks have been provided to 28,000 people, including jail staffers.