Minda Furukawa Electric’s auto initiative in Tihar Jail

Minda Furukawa Electric (MFE), a joint venture between Spark Minda, the Ashok Minda Group of India and Furukawa of Japan, has set up an automotive component manufacturing unit at Tihar Jail in New Delhi under the private-public partnership model for its key customer Maruti Suzuki India.

Several projects are already successfully running inside the Tihar Jail including shoe making, a chemical unit, bakery items, , paper processing, furniture making and carpentry. But this will be the first time that an automotive component manufacturing unit will be set up within Asia’s largest Tihar jail.  The jail authorities have supported MFE and Spark Minda’s socio-business initiative and have provided them infrastructure on lease in the premises along with other facilities as per norms.

MFE is located at Bawal, Haryana and produces the entire range of wiring harnesses for four-wheelers and components related to wiring harness like couplers, terminals, relay boxes, junction boxes, and steering roll connectors used for airbag systems. 

The investment at the Tihar jail will be in machinery, raw material and other quality systems and procedures as per policy requirements. The facility will be run by jail convicts under the supervision of MFE. The wire harness will be manufactured in this jail unit and will be supplied to Maruti Suzuki. An MOU has been signed between MFE and the Tihar Jail authorities on March 30, 2014.

Operations commenced from April 1, 2014 and after successful completion of training to the inmates, the production started with daily supply for part sets of 200-250 wire harness. The finished product goes for final inspection and quality check and is then transported to the carmaker in Gurgaon. As a next step, the Tihar Jail authorities have agreed to earmark a bigger area for production inside the premises once production reaches its full capacity. Bigger wire harnesses will then be produced.

It took a year’s time to conceptualize, envision and install the entire setup in the jail. This social enterprise will provide employment to approximately 200–250 convicts. To ensure a quality product to the customer, MFE has set up check points for it with the jail unit being able to supply zero defect components in the last five months.

The raw material entry and dispatch of the finished product has been kept under the control of MFE and to facilitate this process, a few employees are fully deployed at the jail to coordinate the process. The management team also visits this unit on a frequent basis to ensure the system and policy deployment in accordance with the company’s requirement. A dedicated team of MFE trains and imparts skills to them. These convicts will be able to earn as per the minimum wages act of the government and will also contribute for the welfare fund of the inmates with a part of their wages going to their families as well. Hence, once the convict is out of jail after completing his sentence, he is fully trained for an employment in the automobile or auto-component industry, for which he will be given a work experience certificate. 

K D Singh, joint president says “This was an idea conceptualized by Maenishi, president, MFE and myself. We took it forward as a challenge expecting a lot of road blocks. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the eagerness and the response we got from the Tihar Jail authorities. This built up our confidence to convert the concept into reality.”

This initiative will certainly produce a sustainable collaborative social business model, which will benefit the convicts of Tihar Jail, their families and victims also. We are certainly exploring such avenues at other places also, says N K Taneja, Group chief marketing officer, Spark Minda Group.

The Spark Minda Group has been working on such models for one of its Business Group companies in Germany also. MKTSN, Pirna, Germany in association with Dresden Jail undertakes such an activity since 2005. There are 25 inmates in this unit who are manufacturing small plastic parts like sub-assemblies and even few completely finished parts. MKTSN has organized all necessary equipment, fixtures and supervisors inside the jail premises.