Beauty parlours in Kerala’s prisons
Four prisons across Kerala have opened beauty parlours. The first one, Freedom Xpressions at Central Prison, Kannur, was opened in 2016 and offered the public all cosmetics-related services, like hair cut, hair wash, hair dyeing, shaving, spa and facial. The then Jail Superintendent S Santhosh said that the parlour would also have a separate wing for senior citizens, where older customers suffering from diseases like Alzheimers and diabetes will get special services like manicure, pedicure and foot massage by trained inmates. Since then, beauty parlours have been opened in Open Prison in Cheemeni in 2018 (The F Men), Central Prison in Poojappura in 2019 (Freedom Looks), and Central Prison in Viyyur (Cute and Style). Of these, the one in Viyyur is no longer functional, since the prisoners employed there were shifted to open prisons, and couldn’t be replaced by other trained inmates, whose offences were too heinous. They’re now waiting to train a fresh batch of inmates before resuming services. The rest are running smoothly; Freedom Looks in Poojappura has actually registered a revenue of ₹20 lakhs in the last two years.
