Published On : Tue, Jan 8th, 2019

Now, inmates of Nagpur Jail to take up study through radio route

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A new initiative ‘Mediated Phone-in Radio Counselling’ launched by IGNOU in city prison

Nagpur: In a novel initiative, prisoners of the Nagpur Central Jail who have taken up academic courses will now get their queries answered by teachers through a new inclusive Radio Counselling facility started for them. The ‘Mediated Phone-in Radio Counselling’, launched by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here on Tuesday, will help prisoners in their academic studies without compromising the jail’s security, IGNOU’s Regional Director P Sivaswaroop said.

The ‘virtual classroom’ facility was inaugurated by Deputy Inspector General, Prisons, Yogesh Desai and Sivaswaroop at IGNOU’s Gyan Vani Radio Channel Studio here. “Prisoners’ education is a universally accepted principle to bring a change in their behaviour, make them academically strong, and to help them stand on their feet after release from jail,” Sivaswaroop said.

While IGNOU has been offering various academic courses, this student-teacher interactive call back facility was not available for prisoners as they do not have access to phones in jail, he said. “To circumvent this difficulty, an innovative method has been adopted by IGNOU in Nagpur Jail. Prisoners will now listen to lessons imparted by teachers on the FM radio channel. They will write their doubts/queries on a paper and give it to the IGNOU’s jail coordinator,” he said. The coordinator will immediately call the Gyan Vani studio from the jail office phone and read out the prisoner’s queries. The teacher in the studio will then provide answers on the radio channel, Sivaswaroop said.

The Deputy Inspector General, Prisons, Yogesh Desai claimed that the ‘phone-in education’ programme was being started for the first time in the Nagpur Central Prison where several prisoners were pursuing academic courses offered by IGNOU. With this facility, there will be a “two-way communication” which will be quite beneficial to prisoners who want to study, he said and added, “The initiative will also be helpful in correcting and rehabilitating them.

Shyam Koreti, IGNOU’s Coordinator and Associate Professor of History at the Nagpur University, who was part of the phone-in counselling session launched on Tuesday, said they received six to seven queries from prisoners. He appreciated their interest in pursuing education despite being in jail.