NCHD to expand prisoners’ literacy initiative

Islamabad: The National Commission for Human Development has planned to extend the programme of literacy, skill development and psychotherapy treatment for prisoners to all jails in the country. Currently, the initiative covers 10 prisons.

“The focus of our Jail Project to be expanded soon is on the empowerment of women and minor prisoners by imparting them formal education and useful skills to earn a respectable livelihood after release,” NCHD chairman Razina Alam Khan told reporters here on Wednesday after presenting the NCHD report on prisons to the president and federal ombudsman.

She said the NCHD would reach out to the families of prisoners in particular and society in general to provide space and respect to the prisoners after the completion of their jail terms. “We need to do away with the stigmas attached to prisoners and accept them as respectable members of family and society by treating them like other citizens,” she said.

The NCHD chairperson said the president wanted her organisation to work in jails by imparting education to the children living them with convicted mothers and enabling them to overcome trauma and complexes of life in future.

She said under the Jail Project, the NCHD would offer the services of psychiatrists to prisoners. “This project being executed in 10 jails at the moment will instantly cover almost all jails of the country i.e. 100,” she said.