By Naomi Menezes - Communications Correspondent at UnLtd India

At Delhi’s Tihar jail, most of the 14, 000 under-trials await their fate with confusion, disappointment, and helplessness. However, for the inmates in jail number 5, each day brings a new perspective and skill to be learned. This jail is the ground for Project Unlearn’s pilot, which aims to bring about a quality reformation in young adults through educational intervention.

Started by Eleena George, Project Unlearn is an empathetic endeavour to equip inmates with essential life skills and transform them into responsible citizens. Eleena’s focus is on making the inmates functionally literate, skilful, and to sensitise them towards the crimes they have been charged with. She first began working with the inmates as a part of her fellowship with Turn Your Concern Into Action Foundation (TYCIA).

Eleena’s initial inhibitions of working with inmates were soon surpassed by her vision to truly transform these correctional facilities into reformative centres of learning.

A journey from unlearning to learning

Currently, Project Unlearn works with three batches of learners, aged 18-21, who are traditionally illiterate or semi-literate. Each batch consists of about 35 inmates. Understanding the power of peer-learning, Project Unlearn has trained five peer fellows who conduct the classes every day.

The curriculum is designed by the inmates themselves, drawing from their own experiences. The educational kit consisting of various tools of learning such as comics, cards, and an alphabet chart is aptly called ‘Pehal’ meaning ‘Initiative’.

While the inmates pen down ideas for the curriculum on random pieces of paper in the jail, the team at Project Unlearn refines these ideas and weaves them into the curriculum.

Eleena has appealed to the interests of the under-trials; the inmates love playing cards so she has developed a set of cards that adorn inspiring personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela. The cards serve as a reminder of hope for these inmates, who often lose the will to plan for a brighter and happier future.

Even the alphabet chart is adapted, modelled on the life experiences of the inmates. Instead of the traditional ‘C for Cat’, the students learn ‘C for Court’ and ‘P for Parole’. This makes learning alphabets not only interesting but relevant as well. Adding a twist of positivity to it, they even substitute the negative sounding ‘Parole’ with ‘Parivar’ (Hindi translate: family).

Since most of these inmates have been arrested for committing crimes against women or sex-related crimes, making them aware of the legality surrounding dowry, consent and sexual assault became crucial. Their questions and comments such as, “why is it a problem?”,  or  “the girl and I were in love, so everything that (we) did was under consent. Then, why am I inside?” are explained and resolved through collaboratively developed comic books.

Bringing about a pivotal change

Eleena’s efforts have led to a refreshing cultural shift in jail number 5 at Tihar; it is no longer viewed as a “jail” but as a hostel or boarding centre, where the inmates learn new life skills. The inmates who are a part of Project Unlearn leverage their new language skills to take up odd jobs within the jail, which keeps them focused and busy.

With the supportive jail authorities and staff, especially the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, Project Unlearn encourages the inmates to pursue their 10th and 12th-grade exams through the NIOS centre within the jail premises.  Due to the daily classes and interactive learning modules, the students have begun to write letters to their families, write request applications to the jail authorities, and understand court hearings.

However, Eleena faces the challenge of truly understanding the impact of her work, as there are limited resources to trace the well-being of the inmate post-release.

Moving ahead

Eleena wants to standardise the learning tools and enable as many second chances as she possibly can. She wants to collaborate with prisons to implement these kits and justly facilitate transformation for those who are labelled as “been to jail”.

In spite of challenges such as lack of adequate funding and the taboo surrounding working with jail inmates, Project Unlearn is powering forward and is aiming to bringing about reformative change in the lives of inmates in six prisons in Punjab.