Indian Prisoners Get Early Release If They Pass Yoga Test.

An Indian jail is to release prisoners early if they earn top marks in yoga exams at the end of a course.

The scheme involves inmates at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune, where Mahatma Gandhi was twice imprisoned, and prisoners will be eligible for release three months early as an incentive to do well.

“Yoga has been proved scientifically to improve the mental and physical condition,” said Bhushankumar Upadhyay, the prison director responsible for the programme. “It improves our overall behaviour and calms down our violent tendencies.”

"Remission has been given by the government for good conduct. So as an incentive we are going to give remission to those who excel at yoga."

Women prisoners sewing in Yerwada prison  Photo: Alamy

Inmates who began the new programme last Saturday will sit a practical and a written exam after six months.

Dr Upadhyay, 51, said he hopes the scheme, in which around 1,500 prisoners will initially participate, could spread across India and even to other countries.

Inmates taking the course will also be encouraged to teach yoga to their fellow prisoners at other jails around Maharashtra state.

Early release will also depend on other aspects of prisoners’ conduct, including their involvement in employment schemes such as the prison’s carpentry shop.

Yerwada jail has a history of innovative rehabilitation programmes, having instigated an optional education course teaching Gandhian principles to inmates in 2002.

According to the Sahayog Trust, which devised the year-long course, upon completing their studies, two-thirds of inmates believed their former activities were wrong and wished to ask for forgiveness from their victims’ families.

Officials also claimed the number of violent incidents within the prison dropped as a result of the course.

“Gandhi and Gandhian concepts have been very popular among the inmates,” confirmed Dr Upadhyay.

Mahatma Gandhi was first held in Yerwada prison in 1932, when he went on hunger strike in protest at a British government policy that split India’s Hindi electorate along caste lines.

He was again sent to the jail in August 1942 after his Bombay speech that launched the Quit India movement.

The prison has also held several of India’s most notorious criminals including Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the last surviving Mumbai 2008 gunman, who was hanged within the prison walls in 2012.

Telegraph.co.uk reportage