Shama Anjali Kasbekar

Prayas, an organisation that works with under-trial prisoners and within the criminal justice system, is bringing a bit of sunshine into previously bleak lives

"All I wanted to do was to sit for the tenth-standard examination," says Chandra (name changed), "but my father had other plans for me. He had decided to get me married off, so I ran away from home." The dry tone and the straight delivery of these words mask the making of a tragedy that would lead Chandra, almost inexorably, to the sordid criminality of Mumbai's streets.

"I was far away from home, alone, lonely and with very little money. I got into bad company. They were the only people who offered me comfort and support, but they abused my trust and sold me to a gharwalli (brothel madam)." Instead of breaking her spirit, the descent into misery and bondage sparked Chandra's struggle to break free. She chose an unusual avenue of escape — prison. That's where, fortunately for Chandra, she fell into a safety net called Prayas.

Prayas is a non-governmental organisation that works within and with the criminal justice system to help mostly under-trail prisoners, particularly women enmeshed in prostitution. Civil society may see them as malcontents or, worse, scum of the earth, but for Prayas these are human beings worthy of sympathy, support and understanding.

The organisation traces its origins to a project done in the early 1980s by Dr Sanober Sahni, a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Dr Sahni was collecting data for a thesis on women under-trial prisoners at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and it soon became obvious to her that these were circumstances desperately in need of intervention by social workers.

Under-trial prisoners fall in a strange kind of twilight zone: technically the wards of the court, they are neither the responsibility of prison authorities nor the police. "They are no one's vote bank," says a Prayas worker. Since court cases drag on for several years, the apathy of the state's machinery causes tremendous suffering, not only for the prisoners but their children and other dependents too.

To tackle these problems Dr Sahni started placing her students at the jail for field work. The students coordinated the interactions involving prisoners, their families and the authorities. By 1989 a definitive role had emerged for social workers inside the prison system; the stage was set for a proper organisation to take forward the seminal efforts of Dr Sahni and her students. Vijay Raghavan, a TISS graduate who had been actively involved in establishing the field-action programme, took up the challenge and Prayas was born in February 1990.

"Prayas is the Hindi equivalent of the word effort," explains Mr Raghavan, "without this there can be no hope and no change." One of the reasons why Prayas has been so successful in breaching the high walls of Indian prisons, says Mr Raghavan, is because "it works in an unassuming and non-confrontational manner." This benefits the prison inmates while at the same time gaining the confidence of prison officials.

Early in its work, Prayas discovered that a big issue for women under-trial prisoners is the well-being of their children. There were, and are, single mothers in judicial custody who had little children depending on them for their next meal. How could they keep in touch with their kids? How could they ensure their safety while she is not around? Left alone, bereft of guidance and care, they could end up in a prison cell just like them.

With social workers in the picture, the children of imprisoned mothers get some acutely needed support. Financial help is provided when needed and legal issues involving their mother's case is explained to them. Prayas also arranges for regular meetings between the children and their mothers. This can sometimes be tricky. Recalls Mr Raghavan, "In one instance an imprisoned mother hadn't met her children for five years. She became hysterical at the meeting we had arranged because the kids had forgotten their mother's face. A drama ensued in the jail and the children ended up getting scared."

Prayas has helped in setting up balwadis, or crèches, within jail premises for young children. This enables mothers to continue nurturing their children and breastfeed infants. The organisation's exemplary work with the children of under-trail prisoners has focused public attention on the plight of these mothers and their kids. Earlier, this group of children was not even mentioned in the government-defined list of children living in vulnerable and difficult conditions. As a result of Prayas's efforts they now find a reference in government policy documents and have been recognised as a group that needs protection.

Working inside the prison system soon convinced Prayas of the importance of intervention all along the criminal justice system. "We saw the process of criminalisation that takes place at jails," says Mr Raghavan, "Many of the prisoners are poor and have little social support. When first-time offenders come into contact with hardened criminals and take their help, they become indebted to them and then find it difficult to opt out. We realised that we could be more useful if we positioned ourselves where contact between these two groups first happens: in police custody."

Social workers from Prayas sit at police stations and work side by side with the police. They intervene in cases where their help and expertise will help the prisoner or the victim and bring closure to cases, largely those involving women, children, alcoholics, drug addicts and the mentally. The police can register a complaint against a husband who beats his wife, but registering a case will not solve the woman's problem. This is where Prayas comes in: assisting the victim (or, depending on the case, the offender) in finding a solution, showing them alternatives and referring them to homes and shelters.

In 1991-92 Prayas expanded the scope of its work to include the courts. There is a lot a social worker can do for litigants. "The common person coming to the courts is ill informed about a lot of things and is taken advantage of by touts and lawyers," says Mr Raghavan, "The 'social-worker desk' set up just outside the court enables us to guide people through legal processes and prevent their exploitation by unscrupulous elements."

Today Prayas works in five jails: the Arthur Road and Byculla jails in Mumbai, the Thane and Kalyan jails in the suburbs and a jail in Bharuch, Gujarat. Its social workers are associated with five police stations in Mumbai and one in Bharuch. The organisation is always looking for new areas in which its intervention can make a difference. As an experiment, a social worker has been stationed at the police station attached to Mumbai's main railway terminus to help rescue runaway girls whose families don't want them back. Many such girls ultimately get pushed into prostitution.

Prayas's members refer to places like these as their "pick-up points", because it is here that they can intervene most successfully. Once a person has been motivated to think of an alternative, she or he is sent to rehabilitation centres run by Prayas, one for women and one for men. They are taught how to stitch, embroider, make stationery material, soft toys, anything they are comfortable with, and these items are then sold at exhibitions. They are paid a stipend of Rs 50 a day and encouraged to raise their education levels by attending literacy classes every morning. "Our attempt at these rehabilitation centres," explains Mr Raghavan, "is to create an environment of possibilities."

This rehabilitation process takes four-five years. Prayas handles 80-90 such cases in a year and spends Rs 10,000-20,000 on each case. Along with the salaries of its 35-strong staff and other administration costs, the organisation's spends Rs 30-40 lakh every year. Prayas would not have been able to bear this heavy investment load but for the support it has received from philanthropic institutions such as Concern India and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Prayas's relationship with the Trust goes way back to 1990, when it first started functioning. "We have built a strong bond with the trust and this allows us to carry on our work without undue interference," says Mr Raghavan. "The trust is the ideal for what a funding agency should be. We have extensive discussions at the beginning of each project; after that all they require is our annual report. And they are there to offer advice and support any time you need it."

This is the kind of support that has allowed some sunshine into the lives of Chandra and others like her. Now in her early 30s, the Chandra of today works as a healthcare professional with a non-governmental organisation. She lives in a rented room and is a respected figure in the locality. Her story illustrates the difference that Prayas and its many efforts have made in humanising what remains an intrinsically inhuman structure.

Uploaded on March 2005