Platform Initiated In District Jail Mainpuri – Tinka Jail Radio

By Pavani Chandhok

An open platform to showcase the talents of officers/staff and inmates has been launched under the banner of Tinka Tinka Foundation at District Jail, Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. The aim of this Tinka Jail Radio is to reduce the depression of inmates and promote their creativity. In today’s program, Jail Superintendent Pawan Kumar Trivedi guided the inmates by presenting a story called ‘Phal of Karma’. Songs of Mohammad Rafi and Mukesh were sung by Brajesh Kumar, teacher, Manoj Pachairi and Arif Ali.  Raghav Dutt Pandey, Jail Warder, inmates Arvind, Asif, Ajay Chauhan. A jail visitor and singer Shishank Sharma enlivened the audience with the songs of Kailash Kher.

About Maipuri Prison

District Jail Mainpuri was established around 1850. The captive capacity is 488 but at present around 1200 inmates are lodged in this jail. There are 26 juveniles in this jail. 50 women inmates are living with 6 children. Brajesh Kumar is the jail teacher whereas Pinky, an inmate, has been given the responsibility to educate children. Mainpuri Jail has received the Tinka Tinka India Award twice. In 2019, Brijesh Kumar, the teacher of this jail and Ajay Chauhan, an inmate, in 2020, were given the Tinka Tinka Award for commendable work in jail radio. This platform set up in Mainpuri Jail will now inspire inmates and jail staff to write and recite new compositions every week. With a prolonged ban on visitations during Covid-19, the need to create such forums in the jails for literature and art were felt. Jail Radio was started in Mainpuri in the year 2019.

Prison Reform and the Tinka Tinka Foundation

Dr. Vartika Nanda, founder of Tinka Tinka Foundation, with her extraordinary vision of reforming India’s prisons, has consistently endeavoured to uncover extraordinary stories from behind bars and has tried to embellish the voices of prisons. She started the Tinka Tinka Jail Radio podcast, the first in the world to give prison voices a new and modern platform. This podcast has completed its 29th issue. Tinka Tinka is credited with starting Jail Radio in the District Jail, Agra, besides in Haryana and Uttarakhand. Dr. Vartika Nanda, the founder of Tinka Tinka, is the head of the Department of Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.

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