India Vision Foundation (IVF) has conferred its #Savethenextvictim Youth Award on student Meher Gupta for her initiative Phoenix Creations, which trained over 100 inmates at Faridabad District Jail.
Gupta designed and executed the project with IVF over 7 workshops. Both men and women inmates produced more than 250 earth-themed Diwali hampers involving candle-making, diya-making, crochet, bandhanwar and baking. The project mapped inmates’ existing skills, used low-equipment crafts, and integrated digital and financial literacy. Around Rs 2.5 lakh was raised externally for raw materials, training and incentives. Hampers were distributed via IVF’s network to senior government and judicial stakeholders.
Founded by Dr Kiran Bedi, IVF runs 5 core programmes in 172 prisons across 16 states and 2 UTs, reaching over 27 lakh beneficiaries. IVF Director Monica Dhawan said participants responded to Gupta’s consultative approach as she learned their names and preferences before production.