Tinka Tinka Awards 2020: Celebrating Creativity in Prisons

Steven Pressfield correctly said, “Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it’s for failure”.

We live in a world where we strive to make an identity for ourselves, where we seek recognition for all our achievements and try to make a small place for ourselves in the ever-increasing competition of the world.  And we are granted multiple opportunities for this throughout our lives – we get to showcase our talents and skills via our schools and colleges, by participating in multiple co-curricular activities, intraschool and interschool competitions, and are also some times recognized by society later in our lives, for our contribution to a field via awards or special honors.

But does every person in the world have an equal claim to these opportunities and recognitions? Is everyone motivated in the same manner to excel? Does everyone have access to the same incentives?

In India alone, there are over 3,00,000 jail inmates, which include people who may have never committed a crime, people who repent their crimes and want to rebuild their lives, people who want to be recognized based on their talents, skills, and personality, and not just the fact that they are/were a criminal.

These people barely have access to any of the opportunities and incentives that a person outside a jail does. Moreover, in a country like ours, it is extremely likely that the socio-economic background, type of schooling (or the complete lack of it), 0 incentives, and motivation to excel in life in a holistic manner are things which led to the jail inmates committing a crime and being incarcerated in the first place!

In such conditions, what makes more sense – to condemn these people further, add insult to injury, not treat them normally, and increase their hatred towards society and they will dive into criminalism more. Or to show them the world that could open up if they chose to rebuild their lives, educate themselves, motivate them to prove to be a great human resource?

We are full of prejudices and too quick to come to judgmental conclusions. In our society jail, inmates are shunned, and not even regarded to be ‘human’ in the first place, which automatically takes their right to development and growth out of the question. Good and bad, yin and yang, holy and evil, two sides of a coin – choose whatever metaphor suits your taste – but the fact remains that each person has both the sides residing in him/her deep within, but some of us are blessed to live in conditions where making the correct, the tougher choice, is easier because of the motivation and incentives we have.

Some people make a known and understood choice to do bad, but repent it later as wisdom and insights come to them. Some were forced to make those choices. So is correct to punish the inmates for more than their crime? Incarceration was all they were sentenced to, not overcrowded jails, not unhealthy living conditions, not lives in jails for the children of pregnant mothers, not hatred nor contempt nor disgust or lack of acceptance long after their release from jails. Is it correct, to hate the criminal instead of hating the crime?

Like a silver lining to a never-ending cloud of darkness that the society engulfs jail inmates in, Tinka Tinka Prison Reforms Movement came into the picture. Under the guidance of Dr.Vartika Nanda, President awardee, senior journalist, and prison reformer, the Tinka Tinka India Awards (http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-india-awards-2/) and the Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards (http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-bandini-awards/) were started in 2015, with the aim to recognize and award the talents, skills, and special efforts taken by the jail inmates towards the betterment and reformation of their own lives as well as those of fellow jail mates.

The Prison administrators too are awarded for their work and contribution to jails. These are national awards that recognize talent from jails all over the nation.

The three categories for awards are painting special talent, and awards for jail administrators.  A jury decides the awardees each year and the awards are released by special guests, such as Shri Anand Kumar, IPS, DG, Police, Uttar Pradesh, and Shri Sulkhan Singh, former DG Police (TTIA 2019).

• THE TINKA TINKA INDIA AWARDS:

Being organized for the past 5 years, the TTIAs are awarded for jail inmates and administrators from all over the country recognizing them for their outstanding talent and contribution to the jails.

The stories of the awardees convey the journey that they have taken, from being a simple inmate to an inmate with a purpose – a purpose that ranges from making elaborate paintings to make the jail environment friendlier to writing very well renowned books from inside the jails. Some of the awardees have chosen to pursue the talents and skills that they had from before being a jail inmate, while some have gone to the lengths of educating and re-educating themselves and then contributing to the jail and the society. Of the many awardees that have been given this honor over the course of the past five years, although each exemplary, I’d like to mention a few here:

Paintings:

Bringing radios to jails is one of the novel reforms Tinka Tinka has brought about. Ajay, a convict from central jail, Bilaspur, Chattisgarh was awarded the first prize (2019) for his sketch depicting the entry of radio in jail, and how the dull life of a jail inmate inside the walls of a cell was filled with musical notes, thus freeing him from the shackles of loneliness, giving him something to look forward to.

http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-india-awards-2019/

The introduction of radios in jails was key to increasing communication between the jail inmates, helping them in building healthy relationships with one another while sharing part of their lives with each other through the radio. A sketch depicting this was made by Raja Ram, 34, lodged in central jail, Bhatinda, the receiver of a consolation prize in 2019, portraying two inmates listening to a radio in the barrack, bringing out its potential to bring together inmates and build relationships.

http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-india-awards-2018/

Apart from working on making paintings on Punjabi culture with the objective of reviving Punjabi heritage, Raja Ram partakes in the TTIA every year. His painting “The Dreaming Kids” also received the 2018 first prize. It shows with great simplicity how 2 children, both the same age dream on, the only difference being one dream about his wants, while the other dreams about his needs. The latter is a child who is born in jail and for no fault of his own will continue to spend the next 6 years of his childhood in jail. The painting beautifully depicts how even basic needs such as food are a dream, a luxury for a child born in a jail, while another child dreams about luxuries, unaware of all that he is blessed with.

Shobha Ram, 36, lodged in Central Jail, Bilaspur, Chattisgarh won the second prize (2018) for his sketch titled “Ai Dhairya kee Kashti har Toofan se Nikaal”. His journey of 8 years in prison from a farmer to an artist is conveyed by his painting.

Sudeb Manmohan Pal, 36, a convict in Nasik Central Jail, Maharashtra, is an example of an inmate who makes daily life in jail worthwhile as he uses his knowledge from degrees of commerce and engineering to fine arts and fashion photography, and pours it out into paintings and other initiatives, bringing a little color each day to the blacks, whites, and greys of the prison.

Special Mentions:

There are a lot of jail inmates who have spent such a long time inside jails that their memory of who they were as a person outside of the jail is blurred, while there are some inmates, who, though young, have been incarcerated for life, in which case it becomes easy to just give up on life and stop trying to learn, grow and move on with life. But even in such situations, there have been some inmates who have time and again proven that jails can only confine their bodies, not their minds, and not their will to live a life filled with purpose and meaning.

Another such example is Chintan Vidhyasagar Upadhyay, 46, lodged in Thane Central Jail, Maharashtra, who notably contributed to jails by teaching painting and artistry techniques to his fellow inmates, and continued to hone his skill of being a visual artist since before imprisonment. He has additionally trained inmates in the practice of Warli painting and even designed and implemented a novel workshop along with Dabur Pathway on the same. What is most noteworthy is that in the initial period of his incarceration, he went into depression but not letting it get the better of him, he renewed his love for painting. He has since created almost 20 paintings of his own design inside the jail, one even being purchased by renowned film producer Kiran Rao for the price of 4.5 Lakhs. He is a prime example of how practicing and honing your skills inside jails can actually help you lead a life which in terms of artistic value could be greater than those of people outside jails. https://youtu.be/Apq3v5eqUlo

Virendra Vitthalbhai Vaishnav (46), a former journalist and cartoonist is a Tinka India Special Talent awardee lodged in Surat Jail, Gujarat. He has written the book “Life Behind Bars” published by a UK based publisher in January 2017, inside the jail. His work continues to inspire inmates of jail to achieve feats that are otherwise deemed impossible. http://tinkatinka.org/ttia-2016/ ,

http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-india-awards-2017/,

Awards for Administrators:    

In a third world country with over 3,00,000 jail inmates, but only a little over 1400 functional jails to lodge them in, with certain jails that are so overcrowded that the inmates take turns to sleep and only rest in shifts of four hours, it definitely takes a lot to be an administrator that is able to ensure the smooth functioning of a jail.

Even in such a scenario, some heroes without capes have come forward and done more than what was just their duty. A few examples of such administrators who make life in jails a little better each day:

As we struggle to establish the importance of literacy in rural India even today, an administrator has worked to ensure access to academia and literature in jails. Santosh Kumar Verma, Deputy Jailor and PRO in Headquarters, Lucknow has worked towards encouraging art and creativity in prisons, including introducing a library with the support of an NGO in Lucknow Jail and renovating the jail museum. He has also contributed toward the education of inmates in Barabanki and Bahraich Prison.

Women truly have the force of a thousand men, and proving this is Basheera Begum, 57, Superintendent of the Special Prison for Women in Chanchalguda, Hyderabad, who played a vital role in running a women petrol bunk with female inmates released from the Telangana Central Prison. She has received three gold medals for several meritorious services as a prison officer. She additionally took on the special endeavor to get admission for the children of inmates in schools of Hyderabad, promoting their education and development to help them overcome their limitations.

• TINKA TINKA BANDINI AWARDS:

As G.D. Anderson rightly said, “Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”

Tinka Tinka Prison Reforms movement has found a novel way of bringing the strength, talents, and skills of the female inmates from jails all across India to the limelight: The Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards. Announced and celebrated on International Women’s Day, these awards aim to honor the exemplary contributions of female inmates who strive to make a difference in their surroundings by utilizing their unique capacities, thereby pursuing the goal of reformation. Dr. Vartika Nanda envisaged these awards to specifically draw attention towards human rights, encourage skill development in jails, and promote the reformation and rehabilitation of female inmates.

One often spends a lot time and money decorating the place they dwell in. Sundara, from Mahila Jail, Lucknow, also did the same, by transforming the jail and making it greener through extensive organic farming. Within 18 months of her stay in prison, she produced more than two dozen varieties of chemical-free farm-fresh vegetables, which are now supplied to neighboring jails. Previously lacking infrastructural facilities, the jail has come a long way because of her singlehanded efforts. She has made many lawns and gardens within the jail, giving it a cleaner and healthier look. She is also skilled in the Chikankari embroidery technique.

Female infanticide and lack of literacy amongst women of India is a fight we are still fighting, in which a warrior named Sakina Begum Mehmood, 83, has picked up the art of crochet in prison, she has been teaching the skill to her fellow inmates. Her products are a major hit at the Annual Lucknow Mahotsav.

Women play many roles in their lives, of which probably the most pronounced is the one as a caretaker, a role that all mothers, sisters, and wives fit well into, quality women possess since their birth. Showcasing this are Archana Das and Varsha Ravi Das, from Noida Jail, Uttar Pradesh, who have been looking after inmates suffering from illnesses while supporting the jail staff in providing quality health services. Malati Mondaland and Laxmi Chintalpuri, from Alipore Jail, West Bengal, were chosen not only for their work as medical attendants but also for their involvement in ensuring the efficient execution of various administrative duties.

http://tinkatinka.org/tinka-tinka-bandini-awards/

These awardees are just a few of the many examples, many lives that Dr. Vartika Nanda has touched via the medium of Tinka Tinka Prison Reforms. They not only encourage the receiver of the award but also inmates to try to reform their lives – through art and academia, through educating themselves and others, through works that are small and works that are big, by doing anything that adds meaning to life and a little color of hope to the darkness of the jails.

Another group of inmates with hidden talents will be recognized via the upcoming TTIA’2020, with the theme “COVID19 and the prisons”, to be released on International Human Rights day. The jails have contributed massively to the fight against the pandemic by making and selling masks and PPE kits on a large scale, thus the theme seems apt, and awards are eagerly awaited!

It is heart-warming to see that Tinka Tinka Prison Reforms Movement has, for the past five years, understood the need for jail inmates to grow, learn, excel, and be appreciated. It makes the jails what they’re supposed to be – a reform center, a place where people stand a chance to change the course of their life. I’m sure these awards are what a lot of jail inmates look forward to and are inspired by. They’re surely filled with purpose and desire to showcase their talents and skills because now, they know that someone is here to appreciate and recognize them, not as merely jail inmates but as talented individuals.

Stars cannot shine without darkness, and truly, the darkness in the jail has brought to us some of the brightest stars in the country, as seen through the telescope of Tinka Tinka.

Kinjal Lapasiya