About Us

State of West Bengal has several destitute homes and juvenile prisons administered by the state Social Welfare Department. A few of them are situated at Berhampore, in the district of Murshidabad. The youth of these institutions needed facilities for training and rehabilitation. To give maximum benefit to the inmates of these institutions, Social Welfare department sought the assistance of established Non Governmental Organisations.

On June 18, 1995. Mr. P.M.P. Jamir IAS - Director of Social Welfare Department, Govt. of West Bengal, along with Mr. Sanjiv Chopra IAS - then District Magistrate & Collector of Murshidabad District met Fr. N.T. Scaria, at Don Bosco Manigram, to explore the possibility of Don Bosco Collaboration to impart vocational training to the youth, lodged in the juvenile prisons and Destitute Homes. A meeting followed, in which Fr. Panapurayil Mathew was also present. It was decided that Fr. N.T. Scaria should take up the matter with the Don Bosco (Salesian) Provincial of Kolkata to find a lasting solution to the above mentioned problem. Fr. Thomas Polackal sdb, then Salesian (Don Bosco) Provincial of Kolkata Province and his council held a meeting on July 14, 1995 and issued the needed permission to establish an institution for imparting vocational training to the problematic youth of Juvenile Prisons and destitute homes.

This institution was named - “ DON BOSCO YUVA JYOTI ”, which was inaugurated on March 15, 1998 by Mr. Saurav Das IAS, then District Magistrate of Murshidabad District and was attended by several distinguished civil and, Religious Personnel. Fr. Francis Alenchery sdb, then Provincial of Kolkata Province, blessed it.

On June 7, 1999, Government of West Bengal, Department of Jails by a letter - memo no. 751 HJ, permitted Don Bosco to conduct cultural programmes and moral teachings to willing prison inmates of Berhampore Central Prison. Accordingly Fr. N.T. Scaria approached Prison Superintendent Mr Kshirode Chandra Sarkar for chalking out a programme in the Berhampore Central Prison. Mr. K.C. Sarkar was delighted to extend all possible assistance to Don Bosco Prison Ministry. Accordingly, with the cooperation of the prison staff, Fr. Scaria drew up a time table:

7:00 am   Physical training, sports and games practice.
8:00 am   Breakfast
9:00 am   Vocational training courses.
11:50 am Break.
3:00 pm   Sports, Games, Music Band etc.

On December 18, 1999 Don Bosco Training Institute, in the Berhampore Central Prison was inaugurated by Mr. Hari Krishna Dwivedi IAS, then District Magistrate and Collector of Murshidabad district, attended by Mr. Kshirode Chandra Sarkar the superintendent, staff and inmates of the Berhampore Central Prison. Don Bosco Prison Ministry started with MOTOR DRIVING as its first trade. Incidentally Berhampore Central Prison is the only prison in the world that imparts Motor driving skill to prisoners. Mr. Dwivedi continued to guide and assist Don Bosco Prison Ministry’s programmes for the benefit of Jail inmates, as long as he was the District Magistrate. He visited the prison often and met the staff and prisoners to solve their problems.

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