The first batch of women from Delhi’s Tihar Jail who underwent a skill development program initiated by the Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) have completed the course and are now qualified build a new life for themselves in the gem and jewellery industry.
The GJSCI had signed a memorandum of understanding in March this year with the Tihar Jail to train women inmates in jewellery making. Most of these women have committed crimes due to poverty and a lack of other economic survival skills.
The programme was intended to empower these women with a skill set that would help rehabilitate them into a respected profession after their release, preventing them from going back to the lives of crime that landed them in jail to begin with.
GJSCI Chairman Premkumar Kothari said in a media interview, “This project is a major achievement for the GJSCI, as it not only helps to source manpower for the jewellery industry, it also gives women inmates a new approach to life and a rehabilitated way of living.”
Available in multiple languages, the certification program has several modules that variously train individuals in processing diamonds and coloured stones, wholesale and retail selling, and jewellery manufacturing.
Apart from Tihar, GJSCI has signed MoUs with various bodies including the skill development corporations of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra as well as the Government of West Bengal’s Technical Education and Training department.