Mangaluru : The Principal District and Sessions Judge K.S. Bilagi launched a 15-day yoga camp for the nine inmates in Mangaluru District Prison on Tuesday.

The District AYUSH Department will hold yoga camp.

While nine women inmates of the Mangaluru District Prison will have classes in tailoring from Tuesday, two children aged less than five who are with them in the jail will get teaching facility from anganwadi teachers.

These activities were launched by Principal District and Sessions Judge K.S. Bilagi here on Monday. These three activities have been taken up following the needs expressed by the inmates during the 10-day-long legal aid and health check camp that concluded on June 30. Following directions from the National Legal Services Authority to hold campaigns for enhancing legal services to women inmates, Mr. Bilagi, who heads the District Legal Services Authority, held the legal aid and health check camp from June 21.

It is during this camp that the women inmates, among others, sought training in tailoring.

They also demanded teaching facility for a five-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy who are staying with their mothers.

They also demanded new set of clothes as the ones they were using were those they brought when they came to prison.

Their family members have not visited them since their arrest last year, the inmates said.

DEEDS, a non-government organisation, has come forward to train the women inmates in tailoring.

Deputy Director of Women and Child Welfare Sundara Poojari said that an anganwadi teacher from the anganwadi near the prison will come for an hour to teach the two children.

“This is a temporary arrangement. To make this permanent, I will write to the State government seeking its approval,” Mr. Poojari added.

Mr. Poojari said that the lone two-year-old girl child will continue to get nutritious food from the nearby anganwadi.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Hanumantharaya said that the city police will fund for new clothes for the nine women inmates.

Inaugurating the three programmes, Mr. Bilagi asked the women inmates to study and take part in vocational training that will help them stand on their own legs after their release.

“Consider this period inside the prison as penance and reform yourselves,” he said and quoted instances of inmates who were earning good living — one as a stenographer and another as a writer — following their release.

DEEDS, a non-government organisation, has come forward to train the women inmates in tailoring

The city police to fund for new clothes for the nine women inmates

Deputy Director of Women and Child Welfare Sundara Poojari says that an anganwadi teacher from the anganwadi nearby will come for an hour to teach two children