Pandemic leads to decrease in jail canteens’ profit margins

BHUBANESWAR: Jail canteens, which had been making profits, have witnessed a slump in transactions this year owing to Covid-19.
Canteens selling snacks and beverages to inmates have been operational in 16 out of 85 jails in the state since October 2017. Their annual turnover and profit dropped by 30 to 50 per cent this year as compared to 2019. The special jail in Jharpada in Bhubaneswar, which was the most profitable of the 16 canteens, was also not spared.
The Jharpada jail’s canteen has seen business turnover of around Rs 38.6 lakh this year. It clocked a profit of Rs 6.63 lakh so far. The canteen’s annual turnover had increased to Rs 54 lakh in 2019 from Rs 46 lakh in 2018. Profits in 2018 and 2019 stood at Rs 7.9 lakh and Rs 11.25 lakh, respectively.
The annual profit of the canteen at the circle jail in Choudwar in Cuttack district has been around Rs 3.4 lakh this year as against nearly Rs 5 lakh in 2019. The circle jail in Berhampur now makes a monthly profit of around Rs 24,000, down from the Rs 35,000 in 2019.
Officials cited several factors for the drop in canteen turnover and profit. “We restricted the mulakat system (meetings between inmates and their relatives) in view of the pandemic and introduced e-mulakat facility. Inmates who would earlier receive money from their family members during the mulakat for canteen purchases now don’t have cash in hand. Besides, fewer arrests and bails to many prisoners as part of the de-congestion drive in jails also affected canteen transactions,” DGP (prisons) Santosh Upadhyay said. “The profit money is deposited to the prisoner welfare committee accounts,” Upadhyay added.
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