A Specially-tailored course to instil the spirit of non-violence and truth in convicts has hardly found any takers in Gandhi’s Gujarat, even as inmates of several jails in neighbouring Maharashtra are eagerly opting for it.

Courses on Gandhi Vichar Jhanki, Gandhi Vichardhara Pariksha, Gandhi Vichar Pravesh, Gandhi Vichar as also one in electrical repair training by the Science Instrumentation centre was being imparted to jail inmates in the state in an effort to expose them to the ideals of Satyagrah and non-violence.

When initially started in 2004, 62 inmates of the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad had enrolled for the courses (running in four languages), but since the last year not a single inmate has opted for them.

Elsewhere, over 400 inmates across eight different jails in

Maharashtra, including Yerawada Jail, have enrolled for the course this year.

The textbooks for the diploma courses, lecturers and question papers are prepared at Gujarat Vidyapeeth in Ahmedabad

and sent across to the jails in Maharashtra.

The examination is generally organised on Gandhi’ birthday October 2 each year and the number of enrollments is only showing an upward trend. Initially, it started with 25 enrollments across all jails in Maharashtra, which shot up to 522 last year and has already crossed 400 this year.

Incidentally, Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt had also enrolled for the course at Yerawada Jail in Pune.

Gujarat Vidyapeeth Registrar Dr Rajendra Khemani said: “We used to earlier take exams for Gandhiji’s philosophy and teaching-related courses. The jail inmates were being trained for electrical repairs by the science instrumentation centre. For over a year now, the response from jails in Gujarat has been very poor and we have had no inmates enrolling for these course. Though we send our instructors to encourage them to enrol for the course, a lot depends on the internal unrest within the jail and the efforts on the part of the jailor to invoke interest in these courses among the inmates.”