Social work has its rewards

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Kaushalendra Pratap Singh while receiving the award in Japan

Kaushalendra Pratap Singh was just a research and training assistant with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) till a few months ago. And then came a bonus from the work he was doing as a social researcher — a silver medal for the Young Innovator Award 2012 for his paper Reaching the Unreached — IGNOU’s intervention in Tihar Central Jail, New Delhi during the 26th Asian Association of Open Universities Annu-al Conference in Japan.

The three-day conference had about 200 papers and 300-plus participants from over 20 nations.
It all started in 2011 when Singh joined IGNOU and saw the varsity’s work with Tihar inmates. “IGNOU runs a study centre at Tihar that aims to bring about a positive change in the lives of the inmates through distance education. Not just for them, but it was an opportunity for researchers like me,” shares Singh, whose paper was on how IGNOU has brought significant changes in the lives of the inmates through certificate and PG diploma programmes.
The ongoing work and the recognition have made Singh hopeful to take the mission ahead. His plans are to record his experiences at Tihar Jail for other researchers to study and take the programme to other jails across India. “We need to keep in mind that criminals are never born, they are made by the system. And the system only needs to act to bring them into the mainstream,” says the researcher.