India: Jailed gangsters being taught music in Bihar to de-stress them to soften their hardened souls

Patna: Jail authorities in Bihar have turned to music therapy to soften the hardened souls of the dreaded gangsters serving prison terms in jails.

As part of the initiative, the prisoners lodged in Patna’s high security Beur jail are being imparted training to play musical instruments and sing songs. The objective behind the move is to calm down their anger and at the same time hone up their musical talents.

Officials said the prisoners are trained in music — two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening — under the guidance of a music teacher to de-stress them. They said several prisoners — quite many of them convicted in murder cases — have showed interest in music and are learning the art of playing music instruments and vocal music.

One of them is Pankaj Kumar who faces murder charges. Officials say everyone gets mesmerised when Pankaj sings songs in the mellifluous voice of great Indian playback singer Mohammad Rafi. So is Sudhir Kumar who copies the songs sung by another prominent singer Mukesh.

There are other prisoners like Devashish Banerjee and Mukesh Kumar who have gained mastery over playing the flute. What is significant is the idea is slowly calming down the dreaded gangsters who now behave gently.

“Music is slowly transforming the heart and souls of the prisoners. They now behave gently and look calm and composed,” Beur jail superintendent Jawahar Lal Prabhakar said on Thursday. He said the quite many prisoners are talented and the jail administration was trying to hone up their music skills.

To help the prisoner express their talents, the jail authorities have provided various musical instruments such as guitar, table, harmonium, flute and others to them.

As per the report, currently there are around 4,500 prisoners, including around 500 convicts, lodged in Beur jail which has the sanctioned strength of only 2360.