Noteworthy Achievements till date...

Noteworthy Achievements – In a nutshell

Some of VARHAD’s noteworthy triumphs, besides the ones mentioned above, include:

1) Education: The achievement of permission from the Municipal Corporation for teachers from the VARHAD team to formally educate prisoners from scratch and hold State Board Exams inside the prison until the 4th grade, for all categories of prisoners.

2) Rehabilitation: It is a proud achievement, that every reform and rehabilitation case handled by VARHAD has been a success.

Two outstanding COP (Children of Prisoners)  who completed their studies, thanks to our initiatives, have been placed with the IPS (Indian Police Services) and the Indian armed forces.

3) Policy level interpretation :

Last but most significant is the policy level change we have caused at a macro level. While providing benefits to children of prisoners, the state government was reluctant to consider these children as “needy of care and protection.” After considerable lobbying and advocacy for the cause of including the (COPs) Children of Prisoners as beneficiaries of government schemes, did the Government accept their inclusion.

At the moment, this policy change has happened within the state. We are now working at taking it to the national level.

4) Legal Aid ( PAROLE and FURLOUGH) - Until now 277 cases of Parole and 100 cases of Furlough in the region of Amravati have been enabled by the organisation.  Amravati central prison is the only prison in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra from where largest number of prisoners are being released on Parole and Furlough.

5) Research Work: Our research teams were approached by International organizations such as the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative to create a report titled “Condition of Sub Jails in the state of Maharashtra. This has been successfully published.

It is a huge achievement that as a result of the above published report, a writ petition was filed by CHRI in the Bombay High court.

So effective were the findings, that the court has appointed a committee to look into this matter and asked for our suggestions on the reforms proposed.

6) Media Successes: Our Youth Centre, or VYC has also produced a documentary – Rahuti based on the ‘Life of the Pardhi community,’ which has been featured at the National level!

7) Personality Development of Prisoners: VARHAD conducts classical music classes in prison for all categories of prisoners. The organization has motivated ABGM (Akhil Bhartiya Gandharva Mahavidyapeeth) to conduct classical music examinations for prisoners inside the prison premises itself!...

Male prisoners trained in Classical Music (training organized by VARHAD for prison inmates)  performing a classical music piece, at a Cultural Program held within prison

 To the pleasant surprise of all the members of VARHAD’s team most of the prisoners who displayed interest in music, trained until the Sangeet VISHARAD level (which is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in Indian Classical Music ). This remarkable achievement makes the teachers of ABGM, the students themselves,  and all of us at VARHAD, very proud!