Sanganer
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sanganer
Town in the State of Jaipur, Rajputana, situated in 26 48' N, and 75 47' E., on the Aman-i-Shah river, 7 miles south of Jaipur city, and 3 miles south-west of Sanganer station on the Rajputana-Malwa Railway. Population (1901), 3,972. The old palace, said to have been once occupied by Akbar, is now used as a hospital.
The town, which is walled, possesses a post office, an upper primary school attended by 44 boys, and several Jain temples, one of which, constructed of marble and sandstone, is of considerable size and said to be 950 years old. The place is famous for its dyed and stamped chintzes, the waters of the Aman-i-Shah being held to possess some peculiar properties favourable to the dyeing process ; the industry has, however, suffered owing to cheap foreign imitations. Country paper also is manufactured here.
Open prison
As of 2024
Himanshi Dhawan, Sep 29, 2024: The Times of India
Imagine a prison where you go out to work for a salary, get to live with your family, wear no qaidi uniform and the only condition is that you return by a designated time in the evening and mark attendance with the staff. That’s Sanganer open jail, where Rajesh Agarwal*, who had been handed life imprisonment for murder, was moved to in 2018 after a decade in Jaipur central prison. “After living in prison for so long, I had started believing that my life was over,” says Agarwal. In Sanganer, there are no iron bars or locks, and the system is based on trust. “We could live with our families, go out during the day and use our wages for ourselves. It was such a big change.”
The 38-year-old has been a free man for four months now, but says it was the four years spent in open prisons that eased him into the real world. “I had my family’s support and our business in Jaipur but even then, it was a big transition,” he says.
Sanganer’s open jail experiment — cited in successive Supreme Court judgments as a model for rehabilitation and reformation — is now under threat. In July, the Jaipur Development Authority allotted 2.2 of the 3.04 hectares of land that the Shri Sampurnanand Khula Bandi Shivir (also called the Sanganer open jail) is functioning from to a hospital. This will effectively take away more than two-thirds of prison land. Activists working for judicial and prison reforms say that the move could put the country’s largest open prison project at risk.
Vijay Raghavan, professor at TISS’ Centre for Criminology and Justice, says that like furlough and parole that allow convicts to experience freedom in a graded manner, open prisons are a correctional tool at the disposal of the administration. “Restricting the land use sends a very wrong message because Sanganer has long been held as a model to replicate in other states,” he says.
Recently, the SC granted a stay against the land allotment order and reprimanded Rajasthan authorities for the move.
KEY TO SUCCESS
Sanganer has grown organically since 1963 when it was first established. It is located about 25 km from Jaipur and houses about 450 prisoners. It was barren land next to an industrial area where the prisoners started staying. Over the years, prisoners have built accommodation, a school, playground and anganwadi centre. These facilities are used not just by the prisoners’ families but also people living in nearby areas. “The playground is used to host sports and cultural activities like Ramlila during the festival season, and volleyball and cricket matches that draw participants from across the area,” a source associated with the open prison says. The school and anganwadi is attended by the children in the area.
Its proximity to the industrial area has meant that convicts get work in factories and women can be employed as domestic workers. There are some who drive rickshaws or run small grocery stores used by the community.
A testament of the model’s success is the number of open prisons now. In 2018, when the SC directed states to initiate open prisons in every district to address the problem of overcrowding in jails, there were 60 open prisons. Now, that number is 152. In Rajasthan itself, the number of open prisons has more than doubled from 22 to 52.
NOT SO OPEN ELSEWHERE
While there are open prisons in several states like Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, there is a distinct difference in scale and openness. The inmates in other prisons stay within the prison compound and are allowed to pursue activities like cooking, leather work and agricultural work through which they are able to earn remuneration.
Murali Karnam, Nalsar’s director for Access to Justice program who conducted a study on open prisons recently, found that Sanganer was the only prison where prisoners were free to leave for work but continue to live in the community. He says, “Jaipur’s industrial area is a source of livelihood for prisoners of San- ganer open prison. Any attempt to shift or modify its location, will adversely affect their reintegration. If we honestly believe their reintegration into society is a social commitment, how do govts often shift the prisons to deserted areas? This paradox cannot be missed.” Former SC judge Justice Madan Lokur, who has visited the Sanganer prison and interacted with the inmates, says, “I found that there was no instance of anyone running away, which shows that there was value in what Sanganer was doing. The transition from prison to a useful citizen makes open prison an important measure. Destroying something that is working well is not right.”
CANTEENS TO FURNITURE
In recent years, pressure from courts has nudged many states to take initiatives towards creating more “openness”. Pune’s Yerawada Open Prison inmates began a canteen in 2023 next to the prison premises that served the large working population employed in IT and BPO companies in the area. Called the Shrunkhala Upahar Gruha, the restaurant is designed, constructed and managed by inmates. The first unit was such a success that the initiative has now expanded to four other open prisons in Maharashtra starting similar units. Earnings go to the welfare fund for inmates and the staff get the stipulated daily wages for their work in prison. In Maharashtra’s Kolhapur Central prison, inmates prepare the ‘laddoos’ given as prasad to devotees visiting the Mahalakshmi temple, while in the Burail jail in Chandigarh, inmates have successfully been recreating architect Le Corbusier’s famous kangaroo chairs and making furniture for the Punjab state assembly.
In Kerala, they cook up dishes like biryani, parotta and beef roast that are available at Food for Freedom cafes and through online deliveries. Prisons, including ones in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram, have been successfully providing meals and snacks to diners, increasing their earnings over time. But experts say that these experiments are patchy and often halted abruptly. Shimla’s Book Café, run by convicts with biscuits and cakes baked by them as well, was shut down despite earning international fame.
EYE ON REAL ESTATE
In recent years, many states like Maharashtra and Telangana have moved jails out of city limits as population density around the prison premises increase and people fear that is what is in store for Sanganer as well.
Raghavan of TISS says, “Prisons have always been outside city limits. There is a feeling that these people are not worth living in society. Govts want to use prime land and capitalise on the real estate boom. Many states are using it as a resource mobilisation activity.”
