Dreams no bar for kids at prison play school

 New Delhi: "I want to be a doctor," murmured five-year-old Guddu Kumari, flashing a shy smile and then hurrying to the rest of her classmates resting in the L-shaped play school at the women's prison in Tihar Jail, India's largest prison.
Like Kumari, the other 29 kids at her play school, The Creche, cherish dreams of becoming doctors, journalists, police officers or engineers some day.
For the last 16 years, The Creche has served the purpose of imparting education and moral values to kids in the jail that houses 12,000 prisoners, almost twice its capacity, making it one of the largest prison complexes in the world.
"When the child is more than six years, with the consent of their mother prisoner, he or she is admitted in a boarding school with assistance of some NGOs," Sharma said.

So far, 193 kids, who have spent their early days at The Creche, are now pursuing higher studies at various schools and colleges across the country.
"A few of them are doing management studies, journalism and engineering," said India Vision Foundation organizing secretary Monica Dhawan.
A few are also preparing for Indian Administrative Services (IAS) examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 484 children of convict women prisoners and 1,639 children of under trial prisoners were lodged in various jails across the country in 2008. IANS