Tihar Jail's female inmates certified for gem and jewellery design programme

In March this year, the Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) had signed an MOU with Delhi's Tihar Jail to train its women inmates in designing gems and jewellery. The intention behind the programme was to empower these women with a skill set that would help rehabilitate them into a respected profession after their release, preventing them from going back to the lives of crime that landed them in jail to begin with.

An MOU was signed between Premkumar Kothari, Chairman, Gems & Jewellery Skill Council of India; Ajay Verma, Director, IBJ India; and Sudhir Yadav, Director General, Tihar Jail, earlier this year. Kothari, in a conversation with Economic Times, had said,

This project is a major achievement for GJSCI as it not only helps to source manpower for the jewellery industry but will also give the women inmates a new approach to life and a rehabilitated way of living.

Almost seven months on, these women have finished the course, said an official tweet on the Skill India page. GJSCI has already trained over 80,000 persons, said a report by The Hindu Business Line. The sector, which contributes to six percent of India’s GDP, employs 3.5 million people and is expected to add 2.5 million by 2022.

Available in multiple languages, the certification trains individuals on processing diamonds and coloured stones, wholesale and retail selling, and jewellery manufacturing. Apart from Tihar, GJSCI has signed MoUs with various bodies including Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra's state skill development corporations. The Government of West Bengal's Technical Education and Training Department has also started a course to certify 50,000 artisans from the state under Recognition of Prior Learning through GJSCI.

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