New Delhi: Telangana this week launched a paid programme that lets citizens spend 12 or 24 hours living as prisoners inside the Chanchalguda Central Jail—one of the country’s oldest prisons built during the Nizam’s reign in 1876.
The ‘Jail Anubhavam’ or ‘Feel the Jail’ was inaugurated Tuesday by Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla. It charges Rs 1,000 for a 12-hour stay and Rs 2,000 for 24 hours.
Participants can live in specially designed cells, eat prison food and follow routines typical for inmates. The aim of the initiative is to give ordinary citizens a sense of incarceration and, in doing so, an appreciation of freedom.
The programme forms part of a larger jail museum at Chanchalguda that traces the facility’s evolution from the Nizam’s era to the present.
Shukla, speaking at the inauguration, said prisons must evolve into institutions of reform rather than centres of incarceration.
Hon’ble Governor of Telangana, Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla, inaugurated the “Jail Museum” and “Jail Anubhavam” (“Feel the Jail”) programme at SICA, Chanchalguda, today.
The programme was attended by Dr. Soumya Mishra, IPS, Director General of Prisons & Correctional Services, along… pic.twitter.com/wv3syFEmY3
— Governor of Telangana (@tg_governor) May 12, 2026
The initiative is not without precedent in the state. The Sangareddy Heritage Jail Museum had offered a similar experience—24 hours for Rs 500—before Chanchalguda’s version.
Images of the cells have gone viral on social media since Tuesday’s inauguration. The response has been a mix of dark humour and pointed critique. On Instagram, one user wrote: “Do a crime, stay for free and save (Rs) 2,000.”
Another took a bleaker view: “Society is so detached from real suffering that even incarceration is becoming a themed experience now.”
“Finally, a staycation where checkout isn’t optional and room service comes with steel plates and strict timings,” read one post on X. Another user tied it to a broader narrative: “Innovation at its peak in India. Jail tourism launched in India after the government asked people not to go abroad; the travel industry is finding new ways to earn in India itself.”