142 Tihar inmates offered jobs in placements
Successful candidates include 3 murder convicts, 13 women inmates. HT reports.
Waiting for his turn to get interviewed by potential employers, Iqbal Sheikh (29) was fidgety while seated on a red plastic chair, with his fingers clutching a copy of his curriculum vitae and a prayer on his lips.
For Sheikh, who has a diploma in computer hardware and was reckoned to be bright by his peers, the setting of his job-interview was far from usual: the placement drive was held inside blue tents at Tihar’s sub-jail number two. A Tihar inmate, he is facing charges related to rioting and assault. The interview went well and he was hired as a computer engineer by a consultancy firm at a salary of R30,000 per month.
One hundred and forty-two inmates, including convicts and undertrials like Sheikh, were on Friday offered jobs by five private firms who participated in the employment drive — the fourth since last year. A total of 334 inmates have got jobs till now.
Sheikh is “expecting his release on bail soon”, according to prison Law Officer Sunil Gupta.
Along with Sheikh, Ram Kumar and Pawan Kumar also got jobs. The highest salary offered in the employment drive was R30, 000 per month while the minimum offered was R7,000 per month.
Ram, who is facing charges related to attempt to murder, was offered the post of a marketing manager by the consultancy firm that also employed Pawan, who is facing robbery charges, as a placement officer.
Among the successful applicants were three murder convicts, who were employed as security guard by a firm, and 13 female inmates who landed jobs of data entry operators.
The successful 142 inmates — out of a total of 175 — were hand-picked by the jail administration as they have a record of good conduct in the prison and will be released in six months, Gupta said.
(Names have been changed)