By: Pavani Chandhok
The process to gear up jail radio in District Jail Sonipat has begun. Auditions of inmates for various profiles of jail radio has concluded today. 7 inmates under life imprisonment have been selected as Radio Jockeys, one of them is also engaged with the maintenance of jail library. All inmates have different educational qualifications. 2 inmates under life imprisonment have been selected as singers. The auditions were conducted by Dr. Vartika Nanda, prison reformer and Founder of Tinka Tinka Foundation who is working for jail reforms in various parts of the country.
About District Jail Sonipat
District Jail Sonipat was established in 1983. There are about 1143 inmates including 100 women inmates against the sanctioned capacity of 745 inmates. 148 inmates are undergoingrigorous imprisonment
Training the inmates
The in-house jail radio has already begun its broadcast in the limited range of jail premises in 3 of the 19 jails of Haryana in the first quarter of 2021. These jails are District Jails of Faridabad and Panipat and Central Jail Ambala, all covered under the Phase I of the project. The process has now been initiated in District Jail Sonipat to train inmates to plan, prepare and broadcast the program for In-house one hour daily telecast. The next step shall be to equip the radio room for regular broadcasts.
First jail radio of Haryana was inaugurated by Shri Ranjit Singh (Jail Minister), Shri Rajiv Arora IAS, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Jail) And Shri K. Selvaraj, (IPS), DG Prisons, Haryana.
District Jail Sonipat to be engulfed under Phase III
Presently, commencement of Phase II of launching of radio to the jails of Haryana is in progress. This includes District Jails Karnal, Rohtak, Gurugram and Central Jail (I) Hisar.
District Jail Sonipat has been selected in Phase III along with District Jails Sirsa, Jind, Jhajjar and Yamunanagar. Jail Superintendent of District Jail Sonipat, Shri Satwinder Kumar has informed that there is a lot of excitement among inmates to share their thoughts through microphone in their own jail radio. Jail radio shall provide news as well as entertain them sitting in their barracks through speakers.
Tinka Tinka Foundation
Haryana Jail Radio is a concept started by Dr. Vartika Nanda, founder of Tinka Tinka Foundation. Tinka Tinka Foundation set up its first Jail Radio in District Jail, Agra in 2019. Dr. Nanda is working on conceptualising and training inmates lodged in the prisons of Haryana to bring prison radio under the Tinka Model of Prison Reforms. Dr. Vartika Nanda heads the Department of Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.