Jail! What is the first thought that comes to your mind? Criminals, crime, police? When one would sit down to imagine how life in jail would be, how would one perceive it? Certainly not very positive.
Director Aseem Sinha (A graduate from FTII specializing in editing, an editor to innumerable award winning films), in his 53 min documentary 'Who killed my childhood' raises an issue very few would have imagined and treats it with utmost honesty and positivity.
Women prisoners are allowed to keep the children with them in the jail till the child turns 6. Many a times an expectant mother is convicted and the child is delivered while she is serving a sentence. What would happen to the child's future. Suppose a woman has to serve a life term or a ten year term will her husband keep waiting for her to return. Will the family raise the child? Most of the times the reality is NO.
In such cases the jail tries to provide an environment where the child can be nurtured. Classes where they learn ka,kha ga..trips to exhibitions etc for worldly exposure to name a few. It is not a rosy world out there.
There can be negative influences. It is a jail after all. Quarrels, spats etc are bound to happen. So after 6 years of age child is shifted to a more conducive atmosphere such as a 'Child Welfare Centre'. But what happens to the bond between the mother and child. Is there a resolution. The child is neither convicted nor a criminal so it should not be kept in jail. But then it comes at the cost of separation from mother. Unfortunately there is no answer right now not only in India but world over.
Where the director scores is that the focus of the documentary never shifts. It is moving yet insightful. Yes it is the tellers choice here to highlight the positives but still the very sensitivity of the subject and its handling engages you and makes you feel for the plight of the mother as well as the child.
The documentary is produced by Public Broadcast Service Trust (PSBT).
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