The Society for Nature, Education and Health (SNEH) began holding a two-day workshop on ‘Restorative Justice’ at Sampriti, its training-cum- resource centre here, from Tuesday.
Inaugurating the programme, Prisons Director General Satyajit Mohanty said the current system of justice in the country is in the form of retributive or punitive with provision of punishing the guilty for crimes.
The state is responsible for penalising the criminal whereas the victim’s needs are ignored. The restorative system of justice delivery in the country is limited to the compensation to the victims in the form of financial assistance, he added.
Mohanty stressed the need for restorative justice to reintegrate the offender with the community as well as restoration of normalcy in the relationship with the victim. He also referred to the traditional practice of conflict resolution among the indigenous tribes and rural societies which followed the system of restorative justice.
The workshop was attended by 25 peace builders from various development organisations working in Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Merwyn De Mello and Kirstin De Mello from Bangladesh conducted the workshop supported by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Kolkata.