The Sindh government’s women development department aims to actively partner with dedicated charities and non-profits in the education sector to build quality schooling facilities for minor children of female jail inmates who live in the prisons in Sindh along with their mothers.
Talking to The News in her office, Sindh Women Development Minister Shaheena Sher Ali said the minor jail inmates accompanying their mothers should get access to quality school education to enable them to become productive members of society once they were freed from the prisons and became free citizens of the country.
She said that collaboration with committed non-governmental organisations was necessary to provide a proper schooling environment to the minors languishing in jails. These children in jails should get the opportunity to study at the academic facilities, which fully resemble the conventional schools with proper classrooms and compulsory wearing of the uniform by the students, said the Sindh minister.
She explained that these children had been languishing in jails for no fault of theirs and the government needed to arrange proper schooling facilities for them at the prisons. She told The News that a recent meeting was held in this regard and chaired by PPP Woman Wing Central President Faryal Talpur and attended by women legislators of the Pakistan Peoples Party along with the Sindh home minister and other relevant officials to discuss ways and means for the empowerment and skill development of the woman inmates of jails and their children.
The women development minister said that following the meeting, she surveyed the Central Jail Karachi and assessed the need for setting up a proper school at the prison for children. He said that after Karachi’s central prison, such academic facilities would be built in other central jails in Sindh.
She opined that building schools was fully in line with the vision of the Sindh government to transform jails into correctional facilities for its inmates. She informed The News that the women development department had hired proper instructors to offer the latest beautification certification courses to the female prison inmates in Karachi.
She said the participants of these courses were given proper certifications after attending these courses to enable them to earn a decent living once they were back in society after release from the jails.
The Sindh minister said that IT training courses would similarly be conducted for woman jail inmates and their children to help them acquire proper technical skills for an honourable livelihood opportunity in their upcoming practical lives.
Published in News Daily on 20-February-2025.