Click to play videoSamastipur (Bihar): Jail is an unusual address for five-year-old Vipin Kumar, but such is the way of life for over 500 children who are languishing in jails across Bihar for no fault of theirs.
While their parents serve their sentences, there's no one to look after them outside.
“I don’t feel like staying here, I really want to get out of the jail,” says Vipin, whose grandparents and father were jailed for his mother's death three years ago.
In Samastipur jail alone, there are 15 children lodged along with Vipin.
“There are 46 women prisoners and 15 children living with them inside the jail because they have no one to look after them outside,” admits Samastipur District Magistrate N Sarwan Kumar.
While parents want the children to explore life outside, they are chained by their helplessness. “I want my kids to move out. It’s tough in here. After all, jail is a jail and it can never be our home,” says a prisoner Sarita Devi.
However, there's a way of life in jail too. Swapan Kumar, a teacher serving sentence for attempt to murder, has teamed up with fellow inmates to run an in-house school for these kids.
“Banbari pathshala (school) has been especially set up for these children so that they can be educated,” says jailor Rajesh Kumar.
Not history or geography, it's life's bitter lessons that these children are learning, unsure of what's in store for them or what their future address will be.
“Though my four children are studying here, I want them to go out as early as possible,” says another prisoner Nirmala Devi.
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