Support us for our New Project on Establishing a Gender Resource Center.

We at New Life with networking NGOs in Tamilnadu have been working on various rights based issues in empowering women. The women in Tamilnadu are vulnerable and voiceless, with a low literacy level, suffer from malnutrition and discrimination and are victims of violence at various stages. They need education on every aspect and support in terms of health, nutrition, legal and medical support at times particularly, when they are victims of violence. They are poor and exploited, hence, need intensive livelihood support. We have carried out a situation analysis in most backward districts in Tamilnadu and have visualized setting up a Gender Resource Center to reach out to the women in distress.

A concept of Gender Resource Center (GRC) has been developed for a place which offers support facilities to women in distress, as victims of Domestic Violence, Trafficking, need shelter, health support including counseling on HIV/AIDS, human rights, legal literacy on their rights, education on Banking services and agricultural improvements, food, child support, economic and social rehabilitation. The reasons being the Government’s shelter homes are much less in number, the support mechanism with Protection Officers is not adequate to reach out to large masses of women in the remote rural areas. It is imperative that the civil society takes up the issue and have a synergy with the Government in implementing the Domestic Violence Act.

A Gender Resource Center would be a single window operation that would enable women to have a ready support base at times of distress, have all information and support at one center and get collective support of the Panchayats, the Self-help Groups and the core committee of New Life. The objectives of GRC will be:

To provide a platform to women;
To provide a Single Window of facilities ( Legal, Medical, Nutritional support besides shelter, child and livelihood support) to women victims of violence in rural areas;
To offer advice and services to women in distress;
To support women on the rights based issues;
We need the knowledge base and support of the members of the gender community in providing us with insights of:
Successful examples of Institutional mechanisms of similar Gender Resource Centers;
Provide insight into sustainability aspects in terms of participation, resource mobilization and management issues in running the GRC successfully;
Please suggest ways of establishing a participatory mechanism in working with the Department of Women and Child Development in implementing DV Act through the GRC.
Your innovative ideas and models would help us to design our Gender Resource Center. Your inputs will help us in framing up our strategies and launch the Gender Resource Center. We shall give due credit to the Gender Community’s contributions.

The History of Prisons in Tamilnadu,India

INTRODUCTION

The word 'Prison' derived from latin words which mean respectively to seize and cage. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Prison as " A place of properly arranged and equipped for the reception of Persons who by legal process are committed to it for safe custody while awaiting trial or punishment " . A Prison today serves three purposes which may be described as custodial, coercive, and correctional.

Crime and punishment are as old as Human Civilisation. A crime is an act of social deviance and every act of crime is vested with punishment. Imprisonment has been the common method of punishment in most countries. The metamorphosis of the Indian Correctional System stemming from corporal Punishment, death penalty, banishment, transportation etc. was gradual.

Whenever a prisoner is admitted in a prison he is totally exhausted both in mind and body. To bring him back to normalcy, the atmosphere of prisons should be surcharged with positive values and the inmates should be exposed to wholesome environment with opportunities to reform themselves. Further, the positive factors for the various offences committed by the prisoners reveals lack of education, lack of technical skill and change in outlook play the major role in the causation of all crimes. To counter these various causative factors, the following steps have been taken for the reformation and transformation of inmates in all Central Prisons of Tamil Nadu. With the support of the Government and the encouragement given by the Additional Director General of Prisons a comprehensive programme for the prisoners transformation is introduced.

This Programme as a short term measure deals with taking care of the physical, mental being of the prisoners. Health, Education and Vocational Training are important areas for the rehabilitation of prison inmates in correctional administration.
History of Central Prison, Trichy

Central Prison, Trichy was constructed during the year 1865. The area occupied by this Prison is 289.10 acres. The authorized accommodation is 2517 for casual convict, remand and under trial prisoners. The architectural arrangement of this Prison is radial blocks with central tower. The veteran Freedom Fighter and Social reformer E.V. Ramasamy was confined in this Prison. Out of 289.10 acres, Prison building is located on the area of 114.74 acres. The remaining barren land of inside the Trichy Central Prison are now gradually turning green converting them into a vegetables and horticulture garden.

History of Central Prison, Cuddalore

Central Prison, Cuddalore was constructed during 1865 with accommodation for 523 prisoners initially for lodging mentally retarded prisoners and then with authorized accommodation of 723 converted as habitual prison offenders prison. Afterwards the same was again changed as the casual prison during October 1996. At present prisoners belonging to Cuddalore, Villupuram District are admitted in this Prison. Now prisoners classified as Convicts, Remand, TPDA, NSA, Cofeposa are confined in this prison. The total extent of the prison is 176 acres.



History of Special Prison for Women, Trichy

This Prison was originally functioning at Madurai from 01.07.1987. Due to congestion in the nearby Central Prison, Madurai meant for male Prisoners this Prison was shifted to Trichy on 04.05.1997. The women Prisoners hailing from Southern districts of Tamil Nadu like, Kanniyakumari, Tuticorin, Thirunelveli, Virdhunagar, Madurai, Sivagangai, Theni, Dindugul, Ramnad, Trichirappalli, Karur, Perambalur, Ariyalur Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Tanjore, Pudukkottai, are accommodated in this Prison. This Institution is fully manned by Women Officers and Staff. The authorized accommodation of this Prison is 101 for causal convict, remand under trial prisoners. There is a nursery and crèche available in this prison to look after the needs of the children accompanying the female prisoners. Children upto the age of six will be with their mothers.


History of Borstal School, Pudukkottai.

This was originally functioning as a District Prison of Maharaja of Pudukottai and converted as a Borstal School with effect from 01.04.1968. The young offenders between the age of 18-21 years (Boys) detained by the court under section 8(1) of Tamil Nadu Borstal Act 1925 are confined in this Prison. The area occupied by this Institution is 23.45 acres. The authorized accommodation of this School is 405. This School was converted as District Jail and the Sub Jail was converted as Borstal school vide Government order No. (Rt) 30, Home (Prison - 4) Department dated. 10.01.2006.


The various reformative, rehabilitative and innovative programmes were implemented in Trichy Range prisons for the benefit of Prisoners lodged in Prisons and the activities done by as mentioned below.

a. Medical camps and various health awareness programme for the Prison inmates.
b. Education & Vocational Education for the Prison inmates.
c. Conducted various cultural Programmes for the Prison inmates.
d. Innovative Programmes for the prison inmates to develop their inner talents.
e. Reformative and Rehabilitative Programmes for the Prison inmates.

Among the above various reformative programmes carried out in Trichy Range this paper deals with the Educational programs for the inmates for the transformation

A Brief about our work on Prisoners rehabilitation

Our Work:
New Life works for Release, Renewal and Rehabilitation of Prisoners

Vision of this project:

Our vision is to reach out with love to the thousands lost behind the iron bars and to bring them back to the main stream of life
What We Believe:

MOTHER TERESA "Let us thank the Lord for his great love to share the joy of loving. It is beautiful gift of God to take care of people, men and women in jail. It is a precious gift of God and let us treasure it.

Our Work - Inside the Prison
Life made meanignful in the prison through:-
Moral Instructions, Personal counseling
Speeches, Puppet shows, Music, Drama etc.
Letter Writing for personal concern and thus healing the broken Hearts.
Setting up of good library for mental growth; and distribution of good periodicals.
Providing Recreational Facilities
Vocational Training like sewing, typewriting, embroidery etc.
Conducting literary, art and sports competition among the prisoners
Preparing the prisoners to write University Exams
Conducting Medical Camps
Providing Legal Assistance

PHOTO GALLERY of our Communtiy, Team of staff and the beneficiaries of our various projects- Mrs.Gayathri, Documentation Dept

Hello,

I welcome you all to see our photo collections in the following link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25672448@N02/

We welcome your feedback.

Gayathri,
Doccumentation & Public relations Dept,
New Life.

SAVE INCOME TAX and RELAX- Ramesh F.C.A

New Life has a project approved by Govt of India, Ministry of Finance under Section 35AC of Income Tax Act. Under its provisions the donors get 100% Tax exemption and is deductible from their taxable income.

The details of the gazette Notification under section 35 AC is made available in our official website www.newlifemfi.org

There is a special scheme for donors and for details call our office Number
04312770199

Rs.60000 Crores farmers loans written off- comments of Mr.Charly.,MD,New Life

Loan Waiver: Bane or Boon?
The 1989 has been revisited on 29th feb 2008. by again introducing the loan waiver for farmers. So, are you willing to see this as the help to farmers community, which is in complete distress, by Indian taxpayers OR as an incentive for foul play while loan paying in future?My Take:Definately a farmer who might have sold his property to pay loan has been punished for his honesty, and would have appeared as a fool in society, but keeping in mind the demand of farmers community for long in this regard and their anticipation of possibility of that being happening in the near future would have stopped many farmers from taking such actions of selling their property. So, those "honest farmers" would really have been quite less in numbers. Also, saying that this loan crisis is the result of 1990 loan waiver which encouraged the foul play over loan by farmers doesn't look logical enough since the regions severely affected by this crisis are those that lacks natural resources like water supply and quality of soil. Also, one of the biggest reason for farmer suicide is humilation which they recieve from money lenders on their inability to pay loans. So, saying that farmers don't pay money, despite having it is untenable. May be this could little bit encourage the foul play among farmers, but i have no doubt that the gain is much more than losses. And i also feel this act would help in strengthening the relation between urban and rural society, where taxpayers have collectively helped a section of people in "complete distress".

Article by Dr.Manohar- Advisor, New Life

Internet - A vulnerable place for children
I've been using internet a lot in the last 6 years. Of all the benefits technology has gifted mankind I also see that it is one of those vulnerable places for children. Well, I don't have a child yet, but it's on its way - and I'm more concerned about how my child will use technology. Our generation is special because we are the only ones who have tasted life WITH technology and WITHOUT technology. Our child will not know how life is without a computer and my grandpa will not know how life is with a computer. I believe that technology, with a lot of benefits also has left most of us vulnerable to the predators.Although in India it has not yet been so bad, but I'm sure the western-culture that we are getting soaked into will lead into a lot of troubles soon. I've been learning quite a lot about online securities and though I'm not an expert, I still advise my friends on how to keep them protected on the internet. Recently I was talking to one my friends in the US and discussing about securities we started with a topic: Child sex in the USA. There is a show that is hosted by NBC TV, USA. They have a team who chats with the adults online and pretend to be a female and they make sure they tell thier age as less than 18. In the US it is illegal to have sex with a minor girl. Once the guy asks if they cud meet for fun, the girl gives him an address and gets the guy to the honey-pot (trap) set up by the TV guys. Once he comes in, the TV guys show up and questions them.. if the guy tries to escape, the cops are outside waiting to arrest him. I was watching a few videos and well - some are beyond our imaginations. I was like: Oh God, is there guys like this also???? Anyway, since that video is not sutiable for everyone to watch I'm not posting the link here. However, if the moderator thinks that the video will help us and if he requests, I can post the link. For those who have already known about that, you will know what I'm talking about.