AMRITSAR: The blustering bonhomie on both sides of the Radcliff line notwithstanding the friendly hand being extended by Ms Huma Parveen, a Pakistani national, to her Indian jail inmates in learning cutting and tailoring has never caught the attention of media.

Parveen (35), a resident of Lahore, who had crossed over to India to see her ailing relative in New Delhi landed in jail following seizure of narcotics. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment under the NDPS Act. Parveen claims that some fellow passenger had deliberately kept the narcotics with her luggage before Custom’s clearance, about which she was not aware.

The most pitiable case is that of Rubi (29), a resident of Karachi, who along with her four-year-old son, Aibha, is lodged in the jail. She was caught at the Attari railway station while trying to enter India without a valid passport. She claims that illiteracy had brought miseries in her life. Both mother and son had come from Karachi and inadvertently boarded the Samjhauta Express.

However, once inside the jail she got an opportunity to become a master in cutting and tailoring. “At least I would be able to earn something for the family after I return to Karachi”, she adds. There are about 70 Pakistani nationals, including five women, lodged in the jail. Ishrat, another middle–aged woman from Landa Bazaar, Lahore, had similar story to narrate. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on the charge of bringing narcotics through the Samjhauta Express. Ms Usha Kapur, a child development project officer, said a craft teacher and “Bal Sevak” of the department were training inmates in stitching and adult education. However, Ms Sandhu of the India Vision Project Foundation said Parveen, a Pakistan national, was the most-experienced teacher, who volunteered to train her Indian jail inmates.

The Punjab State Social Welfare Board (PSSWB) and the India Vision Project Foundation (IVF) are running the stitching centre inside the Central Jail. Capt S. P. Singh, Jail Superintendent, said he had urged the state government to give some remuneration to women for sewing clothes at the centre.

Though women barracks are crowded, the jail authorities have accommodated all 125 women convicts and undertrials in “almost homely” atmosphere. The Jail Superintendent told the visiting PSSWB chairman that new block would provide spacious accommodation to women inmates. He said the new building would house a stitching centre, barracks, study room for children and a crèche.—By arrangement with Tribune News Service/Chandigarh.