Lucknow, August 02: Tormented by her guilt and to put an end to her suffering, 45-year-old Urmila decided she will make amends for the wrong she had committed before remorse takes her down.
And what better way to atone than to eradicate the evil for which she is currently serving time in a jail in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharth Nagar district, about 250 km from here.
Lodged in the prison on the charge of torturing her daughter-in-law for dowry, a remorseful Urmila has engaged herself in educating the other women prisoners to shun dowry and launch a movement to remove this evil from society.
“I want to do something for the women so that my own conscience no more suffers from any guilt,” said Urmila, who has been in the jail for the past few months.
“I am not a habitual offender. I am here because I did something terribly wrong,” Urmila, a resident of the Bansi area in the district, said.
Known as the “masterni” (lady teacher) among the women inmates, Urmila’s classes start at 9 am in the women’s barrack and is attended by 20 women prisoners, jail officials said.
Even little children of the women inmates, who are doing time in the prison, accompany their mothers and learn the Hindi alphabets.
“Women can be empowered only if they are educated,” she says . Many of them, who attend her classes, can now write. “They now regularly write to their family members,” she added.
Urmila also provides a good listening ear whenever her fellow women prisoners are in trouble. Many have now taken a pledge to work for women empowerment after they are released from the jail.
The prison officers are all praise for her efforts to educate the women. Initially, the officials were a little reluctant to allow her to teach other women but they later relented after seeing her determination.
The officials also made available a blackboard and chalk to enable Urmila to teach them.
Jail superintendent P K Srivastava says that Urmila has been performing a “yeoman’s service” to society by educating the women prisoners.
——-Agencies