The Goan salutes the man for making people out of prisoners
A Sai Baba temple with fresh aroma of sandalwood incensesticks, strings of Gayatri mantra wafting through the air and an atmosphere ofcalm and tranquility. What strikes you when you enter the once notoriouslyviolent and dirty Sada Sub Jail is a Gandhian wind of change, unheard of incontemporary times. But for Sada Jail’s Assistant Superintendant BhanudasPednekar, Gandhi is stamped in every bit of his workplace. “This is a correctionalfacility and not prison” he insists, every time you call Sada ‘a jail’. ForPednekar, bringing the people, who have crossed on to the other side of law,back to the mainstream is a passion not mere duty.
Son of a humble taxi driver and a gritty household help inSiolim, Bhanudas Pednekar grew up in abject poverty. His eyes moisten everytime he recollects his mother working hard to bring him and his elder brotherup. “Life wasn’t a luxury but a challenge and mother readied us for thechallenge” says the proud son. Young Pednekar always wanted to be in the armedforces. He always wanted to don a uniform. So when a breakthrough happened as ajailor, the first feeling was of being in charge. “I felt I was the police andmy job was to punish and straighten these people” admits Pednekar. The firstday at workplace changed all that.
His first posting was at Central Jail Aguada in 2003 wherehe saw the prisoners, the accused and the convicts at close quarters. “I sawbeyond the fact that they were law breakers. I saw myself looking at helplesspeople caught within the confines of walls, their world “ dreams, fears, hopes,expectations everything within these walls and their guardian, me”, Pednekarwas a changed man. A stint at the prestigious Regional Institute forCorrectional Education saw the innate interest in reforming the prisoners lifeblossom. He bagged the highest accolade Gold Medal for the course.
But Pednekar’s real break came with Sada Sub Jail. Theprison was notorious for its’ fights, jailor-prisoner unholy alliance, pitiableconditions. “I knew that these prisoners had nothing to do and that is why theyhad plenty of time to plot nefarious activities” say Pednekar keeping a carefulwatch on the 24 camera CCTV display beaming live pictures of different cornersof the prison.
In fact Pednekars biggest success here is that Sada doesn’tlook like a jail. Squeaky clean, shinytiled floors cleaned twice every day, a state of art prison mess, bakery,tailoring school, computer courses, Sada’s prison ended up being an extensionof civil society.
The 35 year old soft spoken, cherubic jailor does not looklike a toughie out of a Bollywood blockbuster. Proud father of a little son anda one year old daughter, he prefers to pass his personal sacrifices as “my wifemakes adjustments”. The fear of working amongst hardened criminals and thelesser fortunate shows. Yet he counts it as his blessings. “These are notanimals in a zoo but sick people coming here to get cured of their ailments ofcrossing over to the unlawful side. Sending them back reformed is my job”, sumsup Pednekar as he shuts the doors on the world inside.
