The children in prisoners are living in pathetic living condition. They were vulnerable, oppressed, socially excluded and high malnutrition because of the social stigma associated with being a Prisoner’s child. The mission of the project is to provide appropriate care, education, emotional support and conducive environment to the children of prisoners in India to enable them to cope with parental imprisonment and reduce the rate of re-offending as they redefine their lives with the project objective to provide quality accommodation, care, support and education by placing the children in appropriate learning institutions and to facilitate there integration and reunion of the children with their parents upon completion of their jail term. Dream Care Children Centre; Scholarship for Children; Family Reunion; Towards New Dawn; Legal Aid; Crime Free India Mission are the project activities.
Executive Summary
XXXXXX is a NGO based in India which mainly aims to provide shelter, education, healthcare and all other necessary support to the needy children whose parent is in jail as a life convict sentenced for fourteen years or more for XXXXXXXXX .The NGO has been registered under the Indian Trust Act with the registration number XXXXXXX.
Out of 9 Central prisons in we officially got permitted to analyze the needs of inmates and provide psycho-social counselling to the needy inmates in xxxxxxxx Central Prison by Department on 04th March 2013. Till date a psychiatric social worker from Prison had taken face to face interview and also has given psychological counselling to 200 inmates of Prison.
They are categorized in the following manner.
- There are 39 life term convicts and 13 under trails inmates for family dispute related crime.
- There are 21 life term convicts and 8 under trail inmates for killing their spouse on suspecting their fidelity and for illicit relationship.
- Under the influences of Alcohol related crime, there are 5 inmates undergoing life term imprisonment and 6 inmates are kept as under trails.
- There are also 14 inmates’ life term convicts and 2 inmates sentenced to death row and 3 inmates are under trail for property dispute related crime.
- There are invariably high number of inmates of 57 life term convicts and 8 under trail inmates who committed crime due to bad companionship and revenge / rivals.
- There are 11 life term convicts and 2 under trail inmates who are imprisoned for caste related crime and for communal violence.
- For petty crime, 2 convicted and 4 under trail inmates.
- 2 inmates experiencing life imprisonment for allocation of rape case.
- There are 1 foreign inmate as life term convict and 2 foreign inmates as under trail.
- About 324 inmates who are serving long term imprisonment as life convicts. It ranges from 7 years to 22 years of imprisonment
- There are 20 inmates who secluded in the prison elders’ home above age of 60 years to 77 years of age.
- About 64 inmates who suffer / treated with mild / moderate or acute psychiatric issues, drug addicts, sexual deviance in the prison and they are separated / put under 24 hours tight security with care. Also few inmates are living with HIV/AIDS and TB
- About 37 hard core / habitual criminals are kept separately to avoid risk.
- Everyday few inmates are admitted and discharged in the prison hospital. In an average there are 30 inmates in the hospital.
- Under trails Inmates have been divided into 3 blocks based on their caste that they belongs to, In total there are about 803 inmates (Fluctuate).
After assessing the 200 inmates out of 1245 inmates in XXXXXXXX Central Prison, has identified 17 boys and 18 girls who are deprived of parental care as their father killed their mother and left to prison. Under single parental care there are 42 boys and 58 girls. Living with the lone mother as father is in prison, they suffer with abject poverty and are not able to fulfill their basic and educational needs and is facing numerous challenges in their daily lives.
Hence we hereby kindly request you to extend the possible support to reduce re-offending rate in India by supporting the children of prison and make India as Crime-Free Country.
Project Background
Any discussion on prisoners in a sympathetic manner evokes a sharp response “Why do we have to care about criminals?” They are dangerous criminals! Murderers! And so on… It is a general perception of people that the prisoners are dangerous criminals and hence deserve no mercy. Anger isa behaviour which sometimes ends in crime. Crime has been the first indication of mental abnormality in some mental diseases like schizophrenia, paranoid and psychopathic personality and most of the crimes committed under the circumstances are build up by impulses, emotions backed by unreasonable grounds, immoral attitudes and unethical behaviours that may range from crimes committed out of family feuds to other bigger issues leading to which murdering one’s spouse or others.
When for the first time we encountered the children who have suffered parental separation due to crime and are now imprisoned, we were shell shocked by pathetic living condition of those children. They were vulnerable, oppressed, socially excluded and high malnutrition because of the social stigma associated with being a murderer’s child. No child plays / talks with these children and they are looked upon as outcasts, forbidden and threats. They need emotional support in such an environment of undue hostility. We triedadmitting them to a children’s home, but they were virtually refused to take the risk of giving any attention to these criminal’s off-springs. Thus, we decided to take the onus on ourselves, and we are really happy for it.
Problem Statement
“Every year more children are separated from a parent by crime than by divorce. Identified children afflicted due to parental imprisonment and crime. The children of has prisoners are up to three times more likely to suffer mental health problems. The children of prisoners are seven times more likely to commit crime than others. We know that these children, through no fault of their own, have a high propensity to commit crime or be affected by that cycle.”
Due to changing family structures, children of prisoners do not get the best opportunity to grow and have no guarantee for a good future. Children who were born in a nuclear family and have no able grandparents are disadvantaged especially when the parent is in prison or is murdered.
Elders’ homes are now in the increase where sons and daughters prefer to pay monthly upkeep for their aging parents rather than staying with them in the city. This is partly because they are busy working and others claiming they need privacy. In cases where the aging parents live alone chances of attack are high since some people want to steal their assets such as gold chains. The elderly in this case have a miserable life in their later years and may suffer from unnecessary complications.
No one can think of a child is growing without a mother or a father figure! Even if the parents committed mistakes this should not deny the children the opportunity to experience true childhood in the best environment possible. If children of prisoners are neglected they will hate themselves and even harden up to become terrible offenders. This will fuel the vicious cycle of crime and thus will become a worrying trend.
The challenges of prisoners’ children and the elderly will be addressed in Dream Care Children Centre. The elders will mentor these children which will give them an opportunity to spend their time productively. The elderly will also help the children to adjust and accept their parents once they come from prison. Think that mentorship is an important part because the children of prisoners can lack a positive role model who can help them make the right decisions, so want to find people who will help put them on the right path.
The children have psychological difficulties which will be addressed by professionals such as counsellors.
Vision
To reconstruct the lives of the children of prisoners and to eliminate the social stigma attached to them.
Mission
To provide appropriate care, education, emotional support and conducive environment to the children of prisoners in India to enable them to cope with parental imprisonment and reduce the rate of re-offending as they redefine their lives.
Our Values
- Respect for human dignity
- Tolerance and empathy towards others
- Innovative strategies to deal with social problems
- Collaborative and consultative approach in our activities
- Transparency and accountability
- Environment conservation and consciousness
- Equal opportunities for all.
Objectives
- To provide quality accommodation, care, support and education by placing the children in appropriate learning institutions.
- To provide a conducive environment where the children will acquire values and essential life skills.
- To facilitate the reintegration and reunion of the children with their parents upon completion of their jail term.
Target Groups
This social project will benefit the following sections of the community.
The major target group is children who are deprived of even single parental care due to crime related issues aged between 6 to 13 years. In the initial phase we will admit 10 children in our centre.
The second target group will be the elderly people who have retired from their jobs. They will support the children in several ways on voluntary basis and at their own convenience
The third group of beneficiaries includes relatives of the prisoners and ex-prisoners who will be mainly involved in our sustainability plan.
Activities
- Dream Care Children Centre
- Provide residential care for children who are deprived of even single parental care due to crime related issues. Accommodation combined with education and the necessary attention to bring them up with powerful thoughts to raise their standard of living. Hence it is prerogative issues of to invite retired seniors and eminent personalities across the globe as volunteers in imparting new skills, humanitarian values and sharing their rich experiences with our children.
- Perception: As the children are witnessing crime related issues pertaining to imprisonment of father / mother due to domestic disputes. Such a concept of would sweep the traces of horror by convalescing with appropriate care.
- Scholarship for Children
- Scholarship for Children is a program by which is a facilitation platform to educate children who lives with single parent and surviving with support of meager income as one of the parent is lodged in prison.
- Perception: Protecting young minds from threat of child sexual abuse, molestation and exposure to anti-social elements, treat them as apple of our eye by empowering them with education to lift their status in society.
- Psycho-Social Counselling
- Also work on emotional needs and psychological aspects to reform the inmates inprisons by sending professionally qualified psychologists / social workers. Based on the experience gained from counselling session train the prison staffs on the method of managing hard core prison inmates. Upon completion of their term will try to re- integrate them with their grown-up children to make a prosperous family.
- Perception: Measures inducted by to resurrect the lost inertia in life by exponents of psychiatric podium to challenge society at large.
- Family Reunion
- About 50% of the prison inmates do not have any of their family members visiting them. The reasons may be due to mental agony and/or trauma and/or panic and/or stigma and/or accessibility to prison due to inability to afford the travel expense. In some cases the family members do not know the whereabouts of the inmate and so they may not have visited.
- Tries to establish contact to such families and intimate them and may also do counselling (if required) to make sure that they come and visit. In some cases provide funds for their transport.
- Perception: Strengthening bonds with family members who feel helpless in meeting the inmates due to various reasons, by relieving them with suitable relief.
- Towards New Dawn
- This is a service program by XXXXXX. It creates employment opportunities for the ex-prisoners and family members of prisoners. In which enroll them into job skill training at the nearest centres.
- Assist them to avail bank loans to set up small scale ventures.
- Also provide opportunity to work in our sustainable business plan for the ex-prisoners that enables them to be independent.
- Create awareness on impact of imprisonment and way to self-control techniques in an angry situation. The above mentioned endeavor helps us to curb the vicious cycle of crime.
- Perception: is a service provider encapsulating issues like employment opportunities / imparting skill training programs / availing bank loans to boost small scale ventures.
- Legal Aid
- Offers legal guidance to the needy prisoner’s families. Provide qualified advocate to ensure the legal rights of the children of prisoners who live with single parent, as it often happens that the child is unaware of the particular rights pertaining to the issues.
- Perception: Operating an advisory cell with legal components of empowering child rights
- Above mentioned activities will enable us to reduce re-offending rate in India and Crime- Free India Mission will help us to prevent crime occurrence in the future.
- Crime-Free India Mission
- The Crime-Free India Mission attempts to educate the common man to analyze a problem in a psychological prospective and to teach them that a crime is not a solution for their family, economical and societal problems. We share the root-cause analyses of a crime circumstance and the aftermath impact on the lives of victim’s family. We will have insightful discussion on every aspect of crime control in India and crime that stumble world as well.
- Would organize events and awareness camps on attaining this noble mission by inviting ex-prisoners / affected family / Police & Prison officials / Human rights activists / legal experts.
- Awareness Camps by Task Force
- Research in Prison
- Virtual library on Crime
- Prison experience News
Sustainability Plan
To sustain the functioning of our children’s home, the Dream Care Children Centre, engages in several activities such as organic farming, setting up biogas units, production of eco-friendly and non- plastic materials, roof-top gardening, livestock rearing and etc. In these activities, involve the families or relatives of the prisoners who might have failed to secure a job due to imprisonment of their family member. Some families are left without any source of income due to discrimination which plunges them into poverty. The success of this sustainability plan will reduce the cost of running the Dream Care Children Centre in several ways.
Perception: It provides new hope and avenue for the ex-prisoners to start a new life and drastically reduce the chances of ‘reoffending’.
Future Plan
There are 123 central Prisons in India. Started to work in XXXXXXXXX Central Prison at first and which also located at the south most bottom point. XXXXXX will replicate the same model in other prisons across India reach out to Kashmir to north most top point. In the next stage, aim is to launch the same concept to reach in XXXXXXX Central Prison, Central Prison, and Central Prison. XXXXXXXXXXXX aim to provide best possible resources, care, affection, guidance, support, enriching environment, may be to a small population prisoner’s children, without any compromise to the quality. This will ensure that the children who are most vulnerable and are in extreme need would grow up as best citizens.
