Counselling at Central Jail, Bhondsi Haryana

As part of the community outreach programme, Dr. Kakoli Sen, Dean-School of Humanities & Social Science at GD Goenka University along with faculty members Dr. Sakshi Kual and Dr. Sudha Rathore met Shri Harinder Singh, Superintendent of District Jail, Bhondsi and discussed the possibility of reaching out to the under trials and convicts at the jail and bring about an overall positive change in the inmates.The jail has about 3000 plus inmates and has introduced several rehabilitation measures for the inmates.

After several discussions and a good understanding of the jail processes, Counselling services were started with the female inmates. The sessions including Personal counselling, Group Counselling and Relaxation Therapy to which there has been a very good response. The inmates’ worries range from anxiety and symptomatically reflected in the form of nagging pains in different parts of the body without any apparent physiological ailment. The sessions tried to address the raised anxiety levels that led to such physical discomforts and included Ice breaking sessions, Body movement and exercise along with voice instructed and relaxation through Progressive muscle relaxation, a technique for learning to monitor and control the state of muscular tension.

Going forward GDGU would be offering counselling services on a weekly basis and training sessions to the jail inmates on how to think constructively, take care of their health and hygiene and remain positive about life after the end of their term.