With the increasing cases of Coronavirus in India, there have been reports of shortage of masks. There is some positive news coming from the prisons in the country. In many jails in India, prisoners have started making masks to counter the shortage. The masks will be provided to those in prison as well as supplied to the market.

“Out of the 71 jails in Uttar Pradesh forty have currently undertaken mask manufacturing. Our endeavour is to operate it in the rest of the jails also. There are about one lakh prisoners in the jails of the state and they also have visitors. At the same time, there are about 5,000 employees in jails. All of them need a mask, so we are manufacturing masks. About 50,000 have been made, but since masks are something that we will use on a regular basis, we will continue to make more. When our demand is met, we will send it to the market also,” Dr Sharad, Additional Inspector General, UP Jails.

Like Uttar Pradesh, the work of mask-making is also going on in jails across different states of the country. This exercise is also necessary because the Indian jails are already crowded with prisoners. Looking at the Indian Prison Statistics 2017 report, India has a total of 1,361 prisons as of December 31, 2017, with a total capacity of 3,91,574 prisoners. But, currently, 4,50,696 prisoners (115.1%) are lodged in these jails, which is way above the capacity.

It is clear from these figures that many Indian jails house more inmates than the population of union territories such as Andaman and Nicobar, Daman and Diu. Amid the growing outbreak of the COVID19 and the subsequent mask shortage in the country, the prisoners have been engaged in making masks for themselves and for others in the country.

Like Uttar Pradesh, the prisoners are also making masks in Kerala. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had given this information while tweeting a picture of a blue mask made by the inmates. He wrote: “In light of the shortage, directions were given to engage the prisons in the state in manufacturing masks. It has commenced on a war footing basis. Today, the prison officials of Thiruvananthapuram Jail have handed over the first batch.”

Meanwhile, mask making is going on at Thiruvananthapuram, Viyyur and Coonoor Central jails in Kerala. The masks made by the prisoners are double coat masks. So far, the prisoners have handed over 6,000 masks to the administration. These masks are available in the market for Rs 15 to 20.

The masks made by prisoners will benefit many people who are compelled to buy them at costly prices. In view of the shortage of masks and the incidents of shopkeepers selling them at arbitrary prices, the central government has also fixed the rates for these masks. In a tweet, Food and Consumer Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had observed that the prices of face mask and the material used in its making hand-sanitizers had spiked beyond expectation since the outbreak of Coronavirus. He informed that the government has taken it seriously and fixed the prices. Under Essential Commodity Act, the price for the fabric used in the two- and three-ply mask shall remain the same as on February 12, 2020. Retail price of two-ply mask shall not exceed Rs 8 per master and three-ply mask Rs.10.

Like Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, masks are also being made in the jails of Bihar. The work is going on in the Purniya Central Jail in Bihar. Purniya Central Jail has a capacity of 890 prisoners, but there are 1,441 prisoners living here. Jitendra Kumar, superintendent of the prison, said: “In view of the Coronavirus cases, we are engaged in the process of making masks. So far, we have sent out 10,000 masks to other jails. We have 25 sewing machines. We are sending mask as the demand arises. If there is a demand from the market, we will send it there.”

It is not that the mask-making work in jails is undertaken only in India. Many countries in the world are affected due to the Coronavirus and also an acute shortage of masks. To overcome the shortage, the jail inmate in Texas, US are also making cotton-based masks. About 25,000 such masks will be made by them. With the effort of these prisoners, it is evident that people around the world are united and involved at their own level, in fighting this pandemic.