“I am trying to shun darkness,” said a 33-year-old undertrial, a Nepalese, in Model Central Jail, Kanda near Shimla, who has done colourful paintings on the walls of jail.

Lodged in jail for 33 months, he was a daily wager in Shimla district and was booked under NDPS Act, and later for jailbreak.

He took to sketching on paper to avoid the company of the jail inmates, who, he said, would spend time arguing. Without formal training, he slowly moved on to painting on walls, his first one being that of Lord Ganesha, just inside the entrance of jail gate.

With perfect pictorial memory, this primary pass Nepalese has made six wall paintings, including one of the statues of army jawans, he saw outside the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) in Shimla.

Another educated youth, 25, from south India, who was caught in 2016 from a Himachal district and was sentenced to five years imprisonment for allegiance to ISIS, has occupied himself as a fashion designer for jackets and caps made by Kanda jail inmates.

“I was a student in University and had just been friends with some people, who landed me in trouble. Initially, when I was interrogated and penalised, it hardened my feelings. But later I realised. It is an awakening for me and I have now engaged myself in the activity (fashion designing) that I was always fond of and that I can pursue later,” he said.

These are not the cases in isolation, where the jail authorities have helped jail inmates fill the blank four walls of punishment and repentance with positivity.

A visit to Kanda jail gives a fair idea of jail reforms picking up pace in Himachal Pradesh over the last some years.

Not only the unique Book Café near the historic Ridge in Shimla, which is run by convicts to sell bakery products made inside jail, prisoners in Himachal Pradesh are engaged in one or the other activity— right from weaving shawls, making shirts and jackets to furniture.

Most of these products are made professionally and they sell like hot cakes anywhere they are displayed, including on-line.

So much that the combined turnover of 14 prisons in Himachal last year was Rs 3.28 crore. In 2016, it was Rs 2.50 crore.

As per records, in 2015, over 300 jail inmates were paid wages to the tune of Rs five lakh, but in 2017, 3000 inmates were paid wages totalling Rs 1.14 crore.

“Our objective is to make prisoners better human beings when they go out. We try to reform, by keeping them occupied. My effort is to give them all an opportunity to work, learn.

This helps them in rehabilitation later,” said Director General, Prisons and Correctional Services, Somesh Goel. He said the department has started ‘Har Haath Ko Kaam’ in prisons.

“We had conducted a study in Nahan jail and found that 46 per cent inmates were the sole bread winners. It is essential to give them work, so that they can support their families back home.” In this regard, Goel said, the women inmates are also being considered.