A marvelous initiative

An eatery run by murder convicts? Would you want to eat there and if you do, would you trust the quality? But visit this ‘Tihar Food Court’ in West Delhi, a stone’s throw away from Tihar Jail and you might change this bias – everyone makes a mistake in life, sometimes heinous ones but shouldn’t every one also be given a chance to repent and correct oneself? And when everything is impermanent in this world, what is human nature, bad can become good, right?

Well so this is a second chance given to these murder convicts. The food and entire hotel is managed by the inmates and they could put 5-star hotels to shame when it comes to hygiene. They cook only vegetarian thalis and food is fine. Each worker is paid Rs.74/day and to be eligible to serve and cook in this restaurant, the inmates need to fulfill certain eligibility criteria – they should have been at least 12 years in prison, should have a spotless prison record, are considered trustworthy and should have studied at least high school. More importantly, only prisoners eligible for freedom in the next 1-2 years are selected as they are less likely to try and escape. They come to the restaurant every day on a cycle or walking and best part – are not accompanied by any security escort.

This is a non-profit initiative and revenues would be used for the welfare of the prisoners and to fund vocational training programmes inside the prison complex. This is indeed a great initiative by Tihar and if you live in Delhi, do visit the place, eat well and do write in the ‘feedback’ book placed by the restaurant. We need to encourage such initiatives and do our bit to make this world a better place.