District Jail Panipat celebrated one year of the establishment of an exquisite Jail Library in its prison complex on February 8, 2022. Catering to the educational and intellectual needs of more than 1000 inmates, this distinct library was established by Tinka Tinka Foundation in February 2021 specifically with the purpose of educating and empowering the women inmates returning to this prison, from Karnal Jail, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The library, based strongly on the foresight of the acclaimed Tinka Model of Prison Reforms, has carved the way to enlighten, inform and rehabilitate inmates by spreading legal awareness, imparting ethical and spiritual values, and stirring the movement for literacy behind prison bars.
The library was inaugurated by the CJM cum Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority Shri Amit Sharma, Jail Superintendent Shri Devi Dayal and Founder of Tinka Tinka Dr. Vartika Nanda. This prison library is a joint initiative of Tinka Tinka Foundation and Deora Seva Nidhi, Kolkata. The first of its kind by the Tinka Tinka Foundation, the library has transformed the daily routine of inmates by providing them with a vast repository of books, reading material and a space to learn and grow. The inmates are encouraged by the jail administrators to take up the hobby of reading and make full use of the special library.
Of the 1000+ inmates lodged in District Jail, Panipat, more than 880 inmates are literate. This fact was perhaps the key reason why Dr. Nanda decided to open the jail’s own library and support these inmates to integrate into mainstream society at the end of their confinement. The library essentially flagged off the march for literacy of the remaining illiterate inmates as well. According to Dr. Vartika Nanda, the library was intended to develop reading habits in inmates and fulfil their communication needs. “This initiative has brought immense change in the attitude of inmates. They were already taking keen interest in jail radio, and the library will further add to the reformation process,” said Jail Superintendent Devi Dayal on the inauguration of the library last year.
Books in the special library are arranged in almirahs according to different genres, including journalism, fiction, art, spiritualism and biographies. The library also has a collection of magazines in English, Hindi and Punjabi. Inmates are allowed to issue two books at a time for a duration of one week. Five special paintings drawn by a former inmate are seen embellishing the walls of this peaceful space. Tinka Tinka has also invited the general public to donate relevant books for the inmates to expand the scope of the library.
District Jail, Panipat, has been in the news for many other positive achievements in the past. It was one of the three jails in Haryana from where Tinka Tinka’s flagship initiative, Tinka Tinka Haryana Jail Radio, started its journey in January 2021. According to Dr. Vartika Nanda, the special prison library was intertwined with the jail radio initiative to grant the inmates an opportunity to use the auditory medium to review the books they have read inside the prison. Both the initiatives by Tinka Tinka have completed one year as of February 2022 and have collectively marched forward in Tinka’s motto to create rainbows behind prison bars. The prison radio movement in District Jail, Panipat, was exclusively captured in a documentary by BRUT India, one of world’s leading video publishers, and released on YouTube in January 2022. The documentary focused on the impact of jail radio on inmates in Panipat. The story of inmate-turned-RJ Kashish, who has been a part of two musical compositions churned out of Panipat Jail Radio over the past one year, was also featured in the documentary.
Tinka’s Jail Radio movement is credited to have produced six other musical compositions, including jail signature tunes, prayers, hymns, raginis and other rhythmic melodies in its first year. All of these compositions have been written, sung and composed by jail inmates themselves. These musical compositions have been released on Tinka’s podcast series on YouTube, Tinka Tinka Jail Radio Podcasts. It is India’s only YouTube space exclusively devoted to bringing the life of the incarcerated in the public domain.
Tinka Tinka is the brainchild of prison reformer and media educator Dr. Vartika Nanda who heads the Department of Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She has been honoured with the Stree Shakti Award from the President of India in 2014. Her work on prisons has twice found a place in the Limca Book of Records. Her prison reform efforts were taken cognizance by the Supreme Court of India in 2018. Her recent research on the “Study of the condition of women inmates and their children in Indian Prisons and their communication needs with special reference to Uttar Pradesh” has been evaluated as ‘outstanding’ by ICSSR.
Tinka Tinka Foundation’s initiatives are known to have facilitated reform and empowerment of inmates across India through the creative means of music, art and literature. Tinka’s flourishing endeavour to set up jail radio across India’s prisons has reached 7 out of 19 jails in Haryana, District Jail, Agra, as well as District Jail, Dehradun. The growth of prison radios is part of an ongoing study on the Tinka Tinka Model of Prison Reforms. Every year, the Tinka Tinka Foundation also encourages inmates and jail staff by conferring the exclusive Tinka Tinka India Awards.
The author of this article is a final year student, Department of Journalism, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.
