Sports Training For Jail Inmates Begins In Cuttack & Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: To help prison inmates build a better life, a sports training programme began in Circle Jail at Choudwar in Cuttack and the Special Jail in Odisha capital on Monday.

The training programme of jail inmates was launched by the IndianOil under its new initiative ‘Parivartan’ on the 75^th Independence Day on Sunday.

The IndianOil, in coordination with the Prisons Department of the State Police, will facilitate training programmes in badminton, volleyball, chess, tennis, and carrom across prisons to help improve the physical and mental well-being, self-esteem and confidence of the prison inmates, especially during the pandemic period.

During the four-week-long training programme, a total of 129 inmates including 75 inmates in Cuttack (Choudwar) and Bhubaneswar will be trained in the basics of the sport by eminent coaches to enable them to participate in local competitions, besides recreation.

The coaches include badminton players, Abhinn Shyam Gupta (Arjuna awardee), Trupti Murugunde (Commonwealth Games medalist and Dhyan Chand awardee), S Arun Vishnu (national champion), Woman Grandmaster Padmini Rout (chess), tennis player Rushmi Chakravarthi (national champion) and renowned carrom players Ramesh Babu, S Parimala Devi and Srinivas.

IndianOil will provide the equipment and kits to the participants during the training programme.

Apart from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Parivartan has been launched in Chanchalguda Central Jail (Hyderabad), Puzhal Central Jail (Chennai) and Poojapura Central Jail (Trivandrum).

Notably, IndianOil has employed the prison inmates who have finished their prison term as customer attendants at 30 retail outlets in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.