Captain S K Pandey, senior superintendent, Central Jail, said, "The interest of prisoners in educational programmes and their demand for master degree courses had led to the start of three new programmes namely - post graduate programmes in sociology and history and diploma in dairy technology (DDT) at the Ignou study centre (48013) of the Central Jail in July this year."

The Ignou distance education is enhancing the self-esteem of the prisoners, he added.

According to Ignou's regional director Manorama Singh, the special study centre at Central Jail was established on June 16, 2010, where at present courses like BPP, BA, BCom, DTS, DNHE, CTPM, CTS, CFN, CHR and CRD are running.

Initially, 103 prisoners had enrolled in the courses in July 2010 which increased to 301 for January 2011 session and 416 prisoners got enrolled for July 2011 sessions.

An induction programme to mark the beginning of new session was held on Thursday where study material and identity cards were distributed to all newly enrolled 416 prisoners.

Source: [TOI]