Foreword
Serving humanity even beyond the responsibilities of one's duty calls for special human beings. Kiran Bedi is one of them. As a woman and as an officer, her compassion, concern and total commitment towards social issues, whether in the fields of drug control or prison administration at Tihar Jail, have earned her unusual distinction. I have myself believed deeply and strongly in the need to treat people who are imprisoned, as part of our own society. Unfortunately, society in general, and prison authorities in particular, treat prisoners as outcastes. I, therefore, admire and laud Kiran Bedi's noble attempts to reinstate aberrant individuals into the mainstream of society by giving them a kind and considerate exposure to a more civilised environment, meditation, education and etter civic amenities. I am confident that this book by Kiran Bedi will inspire readers ad set a precedent for those who can wield authority to retain the man touch.
Preface
Some things are destined to happen, whether we believe or we don't. But I do believe this book is a part of God's larger plan. I never chose to be Inspector General (IG Prisons). I was never even sounded, leave aside being asked. Till I joined this position, I was on a compulsory wait. I waited for a posting for nine months after a full police tenure as Deputy Inspector General of Police in Mizoram, in the North-East of India. The Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, took its time to decide for me it was a 'paid wait'. I was informed that only after the department concerned was told by the Auditor's office, that I could not be indefinitely 'paid to wait', that I was suddenly 'fixed'. The post of IG (Prisons), Delhi, was lying vacant for many months. No one appeared to have been interested in getting posted there, and whoever was posted there, managed to stay away. In all fairness, I ought to have gone back to Delhi Police but the entrenched stalwarts were overstaying and would not make way. I was, therefore, a perfect 'forced fit', and to some the right place to be 'dumped' in. In our impressions prison postings are dead ends and also called 'punishment postings'. To many I was rightly placed to get the message across that furrowing new tracks do not necessarily get you on the road to 'privileged positions'. Just this time, I happened to meet a concerned colleague in his office. I saw him happily perched on a high-back rocking chair, behind a large glass-topped table, in a huge conference hall-sized office. He was clinging on to the position 'visibly' by the strength of wining and dining. He told me, "Kiran, where are you going? What will you do there? There is no work there! I said, "Why?" He said, "I was IG (Prisons) many years ago, I received just two files a day. So I used to clear them from my home, or the additional charge which I had. Therefore, get yourself out of it." I knew where he was wrong, but I did not tell him. I felt he had been promoted too high to look that 'low' where thousands of human beings lived, perhaps the sunshine of their lives. My family too was worried on my being posted to the prison. It was a silent concern about consequences of my expected stubbornness on certain issues and now inside a prison, which had the representative chemistry of the society. My past had caught up. My responses were an open book. Deep down inside me, I could see destiny leading me. I knew I was going to the right place a place where I instinctively wanted to go to, and park and steer all the years of experience of 'Corrective and Collective' policing. The orders came on the eve of a weekend saying that I was posted as IG (Prisons) with immediate effect. The posting orders never state the duration. I reported the following morning. It was a Friday. I was now a responsible 'official-custodian' of over 7,200 inmates.
About The Book
This is no ordinary prison boss. In the seven months as Director General of Delhi prisons, she has made a hellish institution humane. Drug-use by prisoners and staff corruption, both once rampant, are now negligible. This is mainly due to the daily distribution of a "petition box" through which inmates can air grievances, anonymously if they wish. The name of a guard extorting bribes will turn up in the box; prisoners with access to drugs will be exposed, warders who inflict beatings will be named...
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