From ergonomically designed furniture, multi-purpose bags out of woven fabrics, kitchen apparel, story books and packaging for food items to wall hanging storage for children, a wide variety of items welcome visitors at the exhibition titled ‘Jail Se’ in Ahmedabad.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the postgraduate students of National Institute of Design (NID) and the Sabarmati Central jail to create the brand ‘Jail Se’ for the products developed by the prison inmates.

The brand is a result of the efforts to create a bridge between jail inmates and the public that also aims to debunk prejudices against prisoners. The initiative is created under the ‘Guj Pride’ organisation set up by the state government for their central jails where it employs inmates in various industries such as baking, textiles, weaving furniture and binding press.

“During our visits to the Sabarmati Central jail, we realised that the items manufactured by the inmates were of the best quality but due to packaging, these did not have an attractive appeal. For instance, the bread baked by the inmates is one of the best qualities and so is textile, including towels and other items. Students held discussions with the inmates, understood their skills, available resources and came out with simple design prototypes that can be replicated to scale,” said Pravinsinh K Solanki, associate senior faculty at NID.

The exhibition was inaugurated by K L N Rao, Additional Director General of Police (Prison), at NID Friday. He assured the students of taking the initiative forward.

“While looking at the furniture products, we realised that the furniture workshop had the least number of inmates working as compared to other workshops. This was because the furniture manufactured required highly skilled labour. Also, the design was not easy to be replicated or transported, and required skill, a long manufacturing process and was the least appealing as per the demand,” said Aashish Khaire, final-year postgraduate design student who created the ‘square chair’.

To overcome these challenges, Khaire designed the chair in a way that allows unskilled inmates to produce furniture with minimal training. “It is made using simple jigs for cutting and drilling that eliminate the need of skilled training, simple components that can be created by an unskilled inmate with minimum training in machine operation using the available machinery at jail using the canvas backrest and seating that is again created by the inmates only,” he said.

Further, packaging solutions for over 25 items that are made by the inmates, including bread, toasts, bhujiya, bhajiyas and other snacks were designed keeping in mind not only a longer shelf life but also to reduce stigma associated with prisoners and prisons. Also, the criteria such as being economical and designing for larger social impact were also key factors for packaging designs.

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