Premium leather footwear manufactured inside Pune's Yerwada jail are now in the market. Called 'Inmate', this footwear is made within the prison premises by convicts. The project is a collaboration between the state prison department and a Mumbai-based company Tergus Works Pvt Ltd. It is run by Divej Mehta whose family is into leather business. Mehta approached the Maharashtra government with the proposal idea after which it was accepted in 2013.

Inmate as a brand was launched on April 1st, 2018 with Tergus Works Pvt Ltd being the mother company. When the project began on ground level, it was a little difficult in the beginning to mentally prepare the prisoners, but gradually they co-operated. Yerwada prison, the state’s largest prison has a capacity of 5000 inmates.

While footwear manufacturing is new to Yerwada jail, biscuits, furniture, bed, bags, lamps, clothing, carpets, etc. made by jail inmates have been in production for a long time.

Currently, they have around 65 highly-trained prisoners who have learned the skill well. Talking about the project, brand owner Divej Mehta said, "To make them work was little tough, it took six months, but now they are doing very well." Mehta started with the plan to make the inmates independent once they are out of jail by training them in a skill professionally. The inmates can join regular factory workers post their release if they wish to do so. He helped two of them who completed their sentences get jobs through his company’s network.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 17, 2018 05:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).