From law school to prison cells: Apurva's journey to help incarcerated women
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Ranchi: Apurva Vivek is a lawyer by training with a degree from Christ University, Bangalore, and she also has a Master's degree in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
Today, she spends most of her time behind the prison walls in Jharkhand, not as an inmate, but as someone working to support incarcerated women.
The founder-director of Hashiya Socio-Legal Centre for Women, Apurva said her organisation works with women in custody, helping them with legal aid, education, mental health and skilling.
Her journey began in Ranchi in 2013 when she was waiting for the results of the Master's examination.
During that period, she approached the jailer of the Birsa Munda Central Jail and asked if she could offer basic literacy classes to women prisoners and their children. He agreed. What followed were simple, meaningful sessions like reading newspapers, having conversations, or just sitting quietly together.
"That experience made me realise how vital it is to create spaces inside institutions of custody," she said.
Later, as women began trusting her, they opened up about their legal struggles. Many were abandoned by lawyers and forgotten by their families. "It struck me how often we plan elaborate programmes for rehabilitation, but forget the most basic and urgent need to help them get out," Apurva said.
In 2022, Apurva formally launched Hashiya. The work became more structured in 2023 when the Jharkhand prison department invited her to sign an MoU to work inside the Hotwar Central Jail.
A grant from the Azim Premji Foundation followed, helping her build a small team.
One of the first projects she started was a basic literacy programme for women prisoners. "Some women signed legal papers without understanding them because they couldn't read. If they were denied education outside, the least we can do is make it available inside," she said.
Today, her organisation also supports mental health counselling and art therapy.
A Sohrai painting artist now teaches the traditional art in daily classes, and two literate inmates help teach others, inside the jail. All of this is based on what the women ask for. "We don't impose the programmes on them. We listen," she highlighted.
Currently, there are about 100 women and seven children in the women's ward of the Hotwar prison. "We try to be there for every one of them, not just legally, but emotionally.
We play with them, eat with them, and laugh with them. And even after their release, we stay connected," Apurva said.
One story that left a deep impact on her was that of a woman who wanted an abortion but waited six weeks just for legal clearance. That incident led Apurva to push for changes in the Jharkhand prison manual to ensure reproductive rights for women prisoners.
Looking ahead, Apurva said she wanted to expand her work to other prisons in the state and work with the govt departments to build transitional support systems for women after their release from prison.
"This work is not charity. These women have rights. We're simply here to help them access what was always theirs," she added.
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