BENGALURU: The prison staff have a huge responsibility of correcting the jail inmates so that they could easily join the mainstream once they are released from the jail, said N. R. Narayana Murthy, co founder and mentor of Infosys.
He was addressing the prison staff, who underwent a capacity building course organised by the state prison department here on Thursday. “The prison staff has two important responsibilities. One is to treat the inmates as humans with kindness and fairness. You should play the role of teachers and uphold ethics. Converting those who took wrong path is a great job and you should ensure that they are treated as humans. And the second is that the kindness and fairness you show towards them should last through out their lives, even after their release,” he said.
“Most of those who commit crime would have not done it willfully. Sometimes, they are forced to do it or a set of circumstances lead them to such crimes. But, they realise much later the mistake they committed. After that, they should get an equal opportunity to lead a normal life like anybody else,” he added.
NRN’s mantra for development
Murthy said that discipline and hard work were the keys for development of any country. “India is in a very critical junction today. The world had not looked towards India from the last 400 years. Only since last 30 years, the world took note of India’s development.
Thanks to the success of the software industry and change in economic policies. Now, it’s important that both public and private sectors strive hard for the fast development of the country. Without discipline and hard work, we can not expect development,” he pointed out.
During a interaction when a prison staff asked whether Infosys would provide employment to those who have completed their jail term, Murthy said, “Definitely, please send a list of such candidates. I will consider it as special case and try to accommodate them. Whoever finishes jail term should be treated like any other citizen.”
Murthy also batted for providing good facilities to prisoners. “I have visited jails in some foreign countries and one jail in India as well. I personally feel there are a lot of things the need to be improved in Indian jails.”
When a woman staff asked him about the huge difference in salaries in private and government sector, he said, “Every business works on the fundamentals of economics, demand and supply. Even the software engineers would be offered a low salary, if the demand is low and the supply is huge.”
