India Inc on hiring drive at Tihar jail

This is a 'campus' placement drive with a difference. The potential employees are prisoners in Tihar jail, who have received vocational and professional training while serving their terms, once they are released.

In a first, ten top private firms and banks will conduct a recruitment drive at the jail to pick suitable persons from the shortlisted 50 inmates who will figure in the placement for jobs.

Some of these inmates are highly educated with a few of them having MBA and MCA degrees. A jail official said a few of these inmates have been convicted for murder and rape and most of them are behind bars for petty thefts.

The official said IDBI bank, Vedanata Group, Sterlite Foundation, Agarwal Packers, Jindal Steel and Flex shoes are among the companies which will carry out the "campus selection" of prisoners, who have received technical and vocational training while serving their term at the jail.

"Ten companies have agreed to absorb some of our convicts when they get released from the jail. They include IDBI Bank, Vedanta Group and Agarwal Packers amongst others. We have done the profiling of 50 professionally qualified inmates. This campus selection, which is happening for the first time, will be conducted on February 25," Sunil Gupta, law officer and Tihar Jail spokesperson, said.

The jail authorities decided to go for the placement drive after they realised that even after reforming prisoners and making them professionally qualified, they do not get a job after release due to their criminal background, he said. This job placement is being done to help the prisoners earn and live with dignity.

It will also prevent them from committing crime in the future, he said. Gupta said, "All these 50 prisoners have completed their education from IGNOU. They are highly qualified. Some are post graduates, while others are MCA and MBA qualified."