WASHINGTON: Ever since India's ace policewoman ushered in a quiet revolution in the minds of the
inmates of Tihar central jail in New Delhi, US prison officials have evinced keen interest in
learning about India's moral education in prisons that won Kiran Bedi the Ramon Magsaysay award.
Bedi, who took over as Inspector General of Prisons on May 1, 1993, was among the 150 invited
guests from various countries who came to Washington last week, to attend a two-day National
Prayer Breakfast Group meeting held at the Washington Hilton Hotel on February 1 and 2.
The meeting which was addressed by President Clinton on the second day
was an exercise at bringing together non-political public and religious figures, in order to seek
solutions on behalf of the government cutting across political barriers.
Bedi also met with President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton and
presented them with a book titled “Freedom Behind Bars" that narrates in detail Bedi's
work on reforming Tihar prisons, which has become since then a role model to other prisons in
India and outside.
Bedi later said the First Lady was keen to visit Tihar next month and see the
work being done. The "Prison Fellowship" in Washington organized a visit for Bedi to
prisons around Washington on February 3 and 4 and meetings with the local officials of prison
administration.
In an informal chat with News India-Times, Bedi said, ’There has been a great deal of
interest evinced here about my work, particularly as to what are the different strategies for
dealing with violence, we in India have a strong family culture, in America it's different, I've
something to offer from my experience in prison work.’
’What I've done in prison is moral education, I've a loud conscience, it
isn't for the first time this was attempted, I've always had this approach as a police official
for the criminals arrested, for various offenders," she said. Bedi, a former national tennis
champion who has spent 22 years as a police officer came to national attention in 1982 as chief of
New Delhi's harried traffic police. She, had illegally parked cars hauled away without mercy or
favor, including the prime minister's limousine.
Before traffic management, Bedi recalled, in the West district of Delhi,
’I've started rehabilitation work on bootleggers, it was economic rehabilitation in crime
Prevention.’ Later in 1986 as deputy commissioner of North Delhi, ’I opened
detoxification for drug addicts. I've never heard of a police officer operating a de-addiction
center while at the same time enforcing the spirit of law, dispersing unruly mobs and arresting
difficult people.’
The people who awarded Asia's most coveted, public service award
obviously thought, ’she has also been working on human correction, here I've a controlled
environment having a day-management duty.’ Bedi mused pondering loudly, ’Can you manage
a prison without spiritual music, without giving literacy program etc.’ Hundreds of
volunteers have been assisting Kiran Bedi for conducting spiritual education, health care,
literacy and other programs including theater groups, vocational training, meditation, volleyball,
cricket, kabaddi, at the Tihar prisons which has a total of 8,700 inmates as against the
sanctioned capacity of 2,500.  |
She said
’Vipassana course, one of the largest meditation courses ever held in any prison, was held in
Tihar jail, where over 1,000 prison inmates sat together. Now a full-fledged Vipassana training
center is being opened for conducting regular courses.’
Bedi, talking of her reforms, said, ’I notice the program is spreading in India, the Training
Institute of Chandigarh for Prison Administration are sending student batches to Tihar .. the
positivity is spreading, prison is a state subject, yet a lot of ministers come and see on visits
and ask about our programs in prison.’ Stating that there has been a growing awareness among
women about their rights thanks to the powerful medium of television that channelizes information
to the remote villages in India, Bedi said that according to a new amendment of the Panchayat Act,
30 percent of elected members in every village panchayat have to be women. ’In another five
years, India will go through a major revolution, you will get elected women groomed in management
of local affairs, it's a central act, many state panchayats have already gone through this new
election process, another five years, you'll see more women coming into state assemblies, in the
next seven years you'll see more coming from grass roots getting elected to parliament.’
On the controversial TADA Act, Bedi said that this law is currently under
review as assured by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao last week. However, she added, ’You
can't have freedom of speech without a sense of responsibility, a seditious speech isn't your
birth right,’ she said reacting to reports of Simranjit Singh Mann's detention under TADA.
Talking of human rights, Bedi observed, ’We talk only in tems of human
rights, we don't talk of human duties, we've human rights commission but we don't have human
duties commission. I don't think an offender involved in terrorist activities has a right to
violate others' rights, the rights of orphaned children, rights of widows' are often overlooked,
there's not enough condemnation.’ She further said, ’The theme is human duty, it isn't
human right, I don't teach human rights, I teach human duty to my staff, when duty concept comes
everybody protects another's rights, so performance of duty leads to protection of rights, but
protection of rights doesn't lead to protection of duties.’
During her stay here, Bedi also met with some senators' wives who had worked in
prisons. |
