Pune: Yerawada Jail arranges reunion between male inmates and their kids

Pune There wasnrsquot a dry eye at the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune last evening Even if for a mere hour inmates held on tight to their little ones soaking in every moment The premises hosted a happy reunion between 150 male inmates and their children numbering 212 as part of an inspiring prisoner rehabilitation and reformation project mdash Prerna Path path to inspirationFathers and their children couldnrsquot contain themselves on meeting each other some for the first timeThe initiative launched at the Yerawada prison yesterday as a pilot project allowed the prisoners to meet and even play with their children As per the existent practice inmates meet family members in a special enclosure mdash the Mulakaat room mdash where they are separated by steel bars Female inmates are allowed to keep very young children with themThe happy reunionYerawada jail authorities said the chosen inmates mdash some of whom are on the death row others face life imprisonment and a few are serving a sevenyear term mdash who have been craving quality time with their families had been looking forward to the dayldquoIn the morning itself the inmates out on their best clothes and shaved their beards Some even dyed their hair to look presentable to their children Every few hours they kept asking when their children would arrive We allowed them to get out of their prison uniform for this special dayrdquo said IGP Prisons Bhushankumar UpadhyayWhen the moment finally arrived they couldnrsquot restrain their emotions The children were brought in a bus around 5 pm As the children met their fathers mdash some of whom were incarcerated before the kids were even born mdash eyes welled up in pain joy and shockThe fathers hugged the children for as long as 20 minutes and then chatted with them Although the time permitted was 45 minutes the reunion went on to close to an hourOne of the selected fathers echoed every inmatersquos feelings ldquoI feel like this is all a dream I want time to stand still My daughter is in Std VII and I gave her a book on the Gandhian school of thought for her birthday next monthrdquo he told middayKids recount the painPrior to the gettogether the children were taken on a picnic at Savitribai Phule University and then for an interaction with astrophysicist Jayant Narlikar at the InterUniversity Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics A cultural event was also organised for them at the Annabhau Sathe Auditorium in the city where some of the children let out the pain of living with the taint of their fathersrsquo imprisonment Books and school stationery too were distributed among themA 16yearold girl from Solapur whose father is serving a life term told the gathering that the last time she had met her father she was to young to even remember him ldquoFor the last 10 years I wanted to meet him I have been teased and bullied as the child of a criminal but I know that my father is innocent I will redeem his name and honour by becoming an IAS officerrdquo the Std IX student said to a thundering applauseThe children from Solapur Ahmendagar Aurangabad and Pune districts were selected with the help of two Punebased NGOs mdash Bhoi Foundation and Aadharsh Mitra Mandal