Women prisoners get a hang of English Vinglish

BHOPAL: A motley group of women in lemon and blue sari with an English textbook clutched in their hands silently get into a classroom. They greet the teacher and take their seats. What seems like any other ordinary classroom is different in the way that it is functioning inside Bhopal Central Jail and majority of the students are murder convicts.
It is these convicts who have evinced a keen interest in learning English, a language that is alien to them.
Mamta, 40, a double murder convict, who has been unlettered all through, has realised her dream to read and speak English, in jail. She now boasts that she can read English.

So is Sudha Chanda. “When Iam in class, I do not miss home. I forget why have I been behind bars for last 10 years. When I was a child, I never got a chance to go to school. I did not know what it means to be educated,” she said, adding, that she can count herself among the lettered women, now. Mamta who belongs to Harda district of Madhya Pradesh was convicted six years ago for double murder of her servant and his wife. She has spent some 10 years in jail. The past however, does not haunt her anymore as she proudly flaunts her writing skills. “See I have written many things in Hindi and English. The first thing I learnt to write was my children’s name hoping they would not be ashamed of me,” she said. Rupali, 26, sentenced for murdering her friend over a brawl had never been to school. But has learned about powerpoint presentation. “Computer is like a magic, you open it and you don’t need a pen or a paper to write,” she giggled.
Fozia (24) from Bhopal convicted for killing her husband nine months ago says, “this (classes) is the only thing I wait for everyday as it keeps me going and helps to forget the miseries of life. I try to fit myself here and hope to become a good person one day,” she said.

While some inmates are seen leafing through pages spread open in front of them, others trying hard to comprehend difficult words. However, after the classroom, the students are frisked to ensure that they do not carry either pencil or pen with them inside the barracks.
“For a moment, they forget who they are and they just behave like school children. I like the way they are trying to transform themselves and teaching them has changed my way of looking at them,” the teacher Neha Xaxa, alumni of BSSS college tells TOI. “Providing basic computer knowledge and teaching has been the joint initiative of Bhopal School of Social Sciences (BSSS) and the jail department,” said Dinesh Nargave jail superintendent.