NORTHERN ZONE MADANI RAKYAT PROGRAMME PROMOTES BATIK ART BY PRISON INMATES

GEORGE TOWN, May 4 (Bernama) -- The northern zone MADANI Rakyat 2024 programme at the Sungai Nibong festival site near here helps the Prisons Department promote batik art produced by inmates.

An officer from the Pengkalan Chepa Prison in Kelantan, Mohd Shahrizal Ramli, said they provided about 150 batik patterns drawn by inmates for the batik colouring activity at the Home Ministry’s booth.

He told Bernama that visitors to the programme could experience batik colouring for free and take home the finished product.

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According to him, the prison inmates are trained to hand-drawn batik using canting and are paid between 30 sen and RM1 per day for their effort.

“In a day, the inmates can finish about 10 pieces of block printed batik and two pieces of  hand-drawn batik,” he added.  

Meanwhile, a University Sains Malaysia student, Shazlin Samsudin, 23, said she was amazed by the batik patterns produced by the inmates, saying that the programme is beneficial.

Meanwhile, checks found that the free haircut services provided by the Prime Minister’s Department’s Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) through the uKasih R.U.J.I (haircut, massage, tailoring, advertising services) initiative are one of the attractions at the event.

The coordinator for state activities (People’s Well-being Section) of the MADANI Rakyat 2024 northern zone programme, Ahmad Hazwan Othman, said more than 40 visitors sought the haircut services, which begins at 9 am until 6 pm since the three-day programme kicked off yesterday.

“This initiative aims to help the people especially the hardcore poor,” he added.

-- BERNAMA