With music as its aide, this prison in Haryana is trying to reform its prisoners

Wednesday February 21, 2018 , 2 min Read

The main objective behind incarceration of prisoners is to reform them. In an attempt to do just that, prisoners of Bhondsi jail in Haryana are now taught music.

The aim behind the initiative called 'Project Dhun' is to give the prisoners a chance to showcase their talents and also provide them an alternate source of livelihood. Talking about the initiative to The Hindustan Times, Monica Dhawan, director of India Vision Foundation said,

This project is initiated to not only promote the inmates’ talent, but also to upskill and groom them in various creative pursuits, including music. We want to give them a platform to showcase their talent and make sure they reach new heights. We will also enable them to open training schools to groom and harness musical talents on release

To find out about the prisoners talented in music, a talent hunt was launched in the jail by a television channel in collaboration with India Vision Foundation, an NGO. Of more than 2,000 prisoners in the jail who took part, 100 cleared the first round of auditions out of which 20 were selected for training that will last one year.

To help with the training session, a room called Dhum has been designed and inaugurated a few days back. In Dhum, the prisoners will have access to all types of musical instruments including guitar, harmonium and tabla and there will also be teachers to help them learn the instruments.

Kiran Bedi is also part of the initiative. Talking about it to Millenium Post, she said,

This project will also ensure that they are duly accepted in the society and will, thereby, prevent recidivism. This dhun will reform and shall spread. It is a transformative and soul-stirring dhun which will touch the soul.

After the Bhondsi Jail, the plan is to take the initiative to other jails in the state including Sonepat and Bhiwani