Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Chained to their desks: prisoners will staff call centre within Indian jail

Chained to their desks: prisoners will staff call centre within Indian jail: "

From The Guardian:


For a man serving a life sentence for murder, Pradeep Deburma has a slightly unlikely dream: to work in a call centre like hundreds of thousands of other young ambitious Indians. Even more improbably, he has every chance of realising it while still behind bars.


Deburma, 24, is detained in a high-security prison near Hyderabad which is launching an innovative scheme to turn convicts into “outsourcing providers” for local firms and eventually, it is hoped, international clients.


The scheme is in its early stages, with prisoners being trained in basic data entry skills. Jail authorities hope that inmates will soon be just as likely to tap at a keyboard as dig vegetables, make carpets or stitch uniforms.


“We have got so many computer literates and professionals in our prison,” said Gopinath Reddy, director general of prisons in the state of Andhra Pradesh.


“So far they are not being fully recognised, but now their knowledge will be utilised for the nation and when they go out they can also lead a meaningful life.”


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