Kerala jail to open beauty parlour

Kerala Prisons chief Rishiraj Singh addressing the prisoners at the beautician course certificate distribution function at Kannur

Men in Kerala's northern town of Kannur, who look for a cheap makeover, can go to the Central Jail. The prison authorities will soon be opening a beauty parlour outside the jail complex to pamper men, who are increasingly becoming style savvy.
The prison has trained 30 jail birds in hairstyling and beauty treatments. They completed the three months-long course conducted by two trainers from the Rural Development and Self-Employment and Training Institute (RUDSETI) at Taliparampa in Kannur district inside the jail last week.
Jail Welfare Officer K V Mukesh said the parlour will be opened next month. It will be offering an array of hair treatment, hair styling, eye-brow threading, face packs, scrubs etc at a price affordable to the common man. When asked whether people will come to the prison for availing the service, he said jails in Kerala were no more seen as centres of oppression and bad influence. The image has changed after the jails started rolling out various products.
"People from all walks of life have been thronging the jail for food products made inside the jail as they are cheap and healthy compared to those available in the open market. Our food division has recorded a turnover of Rs.60 million last year," he added.
The income generating activities evolved from a vocational training programme launched by the Prisons Department to empower convicts to make a living after they come out of prisons. The idea dawned on the then chief of prisons Alexandar Jacob in 2011 when the state assembly witnessed a heated debate on the rising prices of food items in the state.
He thought jails could mitigate the problem to some extent by using the idle labour force in the jails. Jacob launched a chappathi production unit in Viyur Central Jail at Trichur on an experimental basis. It proved a big success. This encouraged the officials to extend the production to other jails.
Now there are nine prisons, including three central jails, rolling out not only chapathis but also other food products like idlis, biriyani, banana chips, laddus and even cakes. Though the jail food was targeted at the common man who can't afford high hotel rates, even rich people gobble up the products as they consider it healthy.
"People like the jail food because we use organic raw materials produced mostly in the jail itself for preparing the food. We have also been using less oil and spices. Though this was intended to make food available at affordable prices, it has turned out to be a healthy practice," Mukesh said.
According to a rough estimate, an average of 150,000 chapatis and thousands of packets of vegetable and chicken curries, prepared by prisoners, are sold out daily in the state now. The sale of the food products sold in the brand name of 'Freedom Food' netted Rs.222 million for the state exchequer during 2013-14.
This made the tiny state of Kerala with 52 jails, including three central jails, second in the country in terms of gross earnings from products made by prison inmates, according to the Prison Statistics India - 2014 published by the National Crime Records Bureau.