Patna, May 29: Septuagenarian Mania Devi had given up all hopes of reuniting with her family after many years in jail as no one used to visit her during her stay at Beur Central Jail here.

Mania, however, was pleasantly surprised when she found her daughter-in-law and grand son-in-law waiting for her at the jail gate after her release from the jail on May 19 this year.

The family members had not turned up there on their own, rather it was the result of consistent efforts made by volunteers of Prison Ministry India (PMI), who not only traced this old convict’s family but also convinced them to accept her back in the family after her jail term.

PMI is a voluntary organisation of like-minded people who work for welfare of prisoners. Its head office is located in Bangalore and the organisation is working in Bihar for the past one year.

Similar was the case with Laxmi Narayan Banjare of Chhattisgarh whose family members had presumed that he had died after they did not get any information about him. Banjare was arrested from a train and the court had found him guilty of wearing military uniform though he was not a defence personnel.

After coming to know of the plight of this Chhattisgarh youth, PMI volunteers dug out the details of his family and after several failed attempts, tracked down his cousin’s number. The cousin took back Banajare to Raipur on March 20 this year.

The cases of Munia and Banjare are not isolated ones, rather PMI in a year’s span has reunited nine prisoners with their family members after their release from jail.

“The work is tough as in many cases, family members are reluctant to accept their relatives for the simple reason that they had spent time in jail. Our volunteers meet such families on a regular basis and it takes quite an effort to convince such families to accept their jailed relatives,” PMI Bihar co-ordinator sister Joel told The Telegraph.

PMI renders this service free of cost and for pursuing the cases of poor inmates it also provides legal aid. “Lawyers attached with the legal cell of St Xavier’s School help us on this front,” said Joel.

Apart from reuniting the poor inmates with their families, PMI recently launched a stitching training class at Beur jail for the skill development of female inmates.