MADHYA PRADESH: Her four-and-half-year-old grandson is not the only one who calls her ‘Naani’ (maternal granny); for the countless women inmates and their children in Indore jails too, 59-year-old Vinita Tiwari is the most-lovable ‘Didi’ and ‘Naani’.

An Indore-based social activist, Vinita is on a mission to change the lives of women and their children embroiled in conflict, inhabiting prison cells.

Back in 1997, her NGO Manu Memorial Shikshan Samiti worked with street children in dire need of aid, running a school for them in Indore.

A few years later, while tying Rakhis on wrists of inmates as part of a Raksha Bandhan function at the Indore Mandaliya Jail (present Indore district jail) she broke into tears when she witnessed the agony of the women inmates and their children living with them inside jails.

In India, female prisoners are allowed to keep their children with them in prison until they turn six years old. After that, the children may be placed in boarding schools or with other relatives if the mother consents.

“I was in tears when I saw the pain of the women inmates who lived with their small kids inside the jail. The children didn’t know anything about the outside world; many of them had not even seen stars and the moon on the night sky. They only came out with mothers during the day. This was the time in 2002 when I decided to dedicate my life for their well-being,” Vinita recalls.

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