Open university gives convicts a new lease of life

Updated on: Monday, November 16, 2009

Mumbai: A woman, who spent seven years in jail for murder, has got a job soon after stepping out of the prison walls, courtesy an initiative by the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU).

When Sandhya Jadhav, convicted for killing a man who tried to rape her, stepped out of Nagpur's central jail on Friday, she had an Arts degree and also a Rs 7,000-per month job, due to the efforts taken by the new Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Sudhir Gavhane.

'It is our aim to bring such people into the mainstream and make them self-reliant so that they pick up from where they left before going to jail,' Gavhane said. Another woman convict Varsha Itankar, who discontinued her studies after ninth standard, was part of the first batch of women who appeared for degree-level examination conducted by the University.

Itankar secured 72 per cent in the Arts stream. She was convicted in a murder case in 1997. 'I wanted to win the court case and my freedom but in a way, I also wanted to lose the case and stay back to be able to appear for the exams,' she said.

The most challenging part is to mentally prepare the inmates who feel that they have no future left, a university official said, adding 57 jail inmates, including five women, got degrees through YCMOU's distance education programme.

YCMOU authorities waived off the fees and provided study material free of cost to the inmates. The university came into being in 1989 by an Act promulgated by the Maharashtra State Legislature. It is the fifth Open University of India and is situated in Nashik.

YCMOU carries on its functions through eight regional centres located in Amaravati, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Nasik and Pune and about 1400 study centres all over the state.

Open university gives convicts a new lease of life

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