📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / VasuVR
Business
Gujarat prisons clock ₹44 crore turnover as inmates earn through trade training
✍️ Bhaskar English
🗓 24 Sep 2026, 09:00 AM
👁 11
Prisons in Gujarat have turned into profit‑making units, generating about ₹44 crore a year while inmates acquire marketable skills and earn wages.
The Gujarat prison system has adopted a ‘business‑mindset’, converting several jail facilities into workshops that produce goods ranging from furniture to textiles. According to officials, the combined output of these units amounts to roughly ₹44 crore in annual turnover.
Inmates are enrolled in vocational programmes that teach trades such as carpentry, tailoring, and metalwork. They receive a modest daily wage for their labour, which is intended to support their families and facilitate reintegration after release.
The model is being hailed by prison administrators as a way to reduce recidivism and offset the cost of incarceration. Critics, however, caution that the commercial focus must not compromise inmates’ rights or lead to exploitation.
The initiative, launched under the state’s Department of Prison Administration, is currently being piloted in major prisons across Gujarat, with plans to expand to smaller facilities if the financial and social outcomes remain positive.
Inmates are enrolled in vocational programmes that teach trades such as carpentry, tailoring, and metalwork. They receive a modest daily wage for their labour, which is intended to support their families and facilitate reintegration after release.
The model is being hailed by prison administrators as a way to reduce recidivism and offset the cost of incarceration. Critics, however, caution that the commercial focus must not compromise inmates’ rights or lead to exploitation.
The initiative, launched under the state’s Department of Prison Administration, is currently being piloted in major prisons across Gujarat, with plans to expand to smaller facilities if the financial and social outcomes remain positive.