On 8th March 2014 we the students of Std. IXth along with our class Teacher Sangeeta Pandey, Principal Sr. Jacinta Pinto and Superior Sr. Priscilla Travasso visited the Byculla Women’s Prison to celebrate the International Women’s Day.
The procedure to enter the prison was too long, as there were many formalities to fulfill. After the completion of all that ten of us students entered the prison premises with feelings of suspense and fear. There were around 322 women prisoners with their 37 children as according to the law the children could remain with their imprisoned mothers till the age of 5. As soon as we entered most of the women started crying. It was a very pitiful sight to see them sad. We were shocked with the overwhelming response we received from the Inmates. Miss. Shilpa Kaloya introduced the students to the inmates. In her introductory talk she also brought awareness regarding E-waste, the gadgets which are not in use, and which were collected in our school. To brighten up their day we performed a prayer dance and a skit was enacted to highlight the importance of unity among women followed by a Hindi folk dance. Through the act we made them realize the power of women. A social worker spoke about the rights of women and their importance. She informed them concerning the actions that could be taken following the new laws of violence done by their husbands or by anyone. So overcome were the prisoners by the presentation that they requested the students to perform the prayer dance once again. The inmates shed tears of gratitude, some nostalgically remembered their youth. The sight of very young female prisoners with infant babies in their arms was difficult to witness. There were tears in the eyes of both prisoners and students. The parting was indeed a very sad one. At the end of the programme we thanked each and every person in authority. Some ladies came and spoke to us. Some of them were very happy to see us. We also were glad to see some of the prisoners going out with new hope in their heart as they were released from the prison.
We are very grateful to our Superior Sr. Priscilla Travasso, our Principal Sr. Jacintha Pinto and our Teacher Sangeeta Pandey for giving us this opportunity to visit such place that we never ever dreamed of visiting and this was the very unique and lovely experience. We have learnt to respect our parents more and have understood their value even more than what we knew. We will never forget this day; it was indeed a memorable day in the lives of all of us.