Rajesh (name changed), a 24-year-old Maoist, who surrendered to the police a couple of months ago, is today a disillusioned youth.
He joined the Maoist movement when he was around 17 years and he says that he was attracted towards the Left Wing Extremists, through their songs and ideologically-loaded speeches. “They would visit our villages and sing songs and give talks on the alleged atrocities by the security forces and government departments and lure us into the movement. I joined with the hope of making change, but after a few years, I realised that the movement has no hope or direction and the ideology was waning. But in the meantime my friends, who were studying Intermediate along with me have done well in life,” he told The Hindu.
This has been confession of many young tribal youth, who joined the movement with a mission, but lost direction in a short while, and have surrendered.
Taking a cue from this, the security forces, who are engaged in anti-Maoist operations, have stepped up their various programmes that deal with empowering the tribal youth.
Buoyed by the success of their pilot project of training around 20 tribal youth at the Skill Development Centre in Visakhapatnam and getting over 90 % placed in jobs, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), is all set to embark upon another ambitious overseas project.
“This time we intend to train another set of volunteers in key crafts such a welding and get them placed in abroad destinations,” said Commandant of 198 CRPF Battalion K.S. Deswal.
The CRPF had set the ball rolling by setting up boxes with a poster at a few police stations and armed outposts in the Maoist heartland in Andhra-Odisha Border region and has already received over 600 applications.
Though Mr. Deswal is on his way out on transfer, he said that programme is designed and it will be carried forward as desired by the 198 Battalion. The district police also have unleashed a number of such programmes to wean away the youth from joining the Maoist fold.
“The Maoist movement has lots its steam in the Visakhapatnam Agency. Their ideology is no longer relevant and the tribal persons are now looking towards development, which is being obstructed by the Maoists,” said SP of Visakhapatnam Attada Babujee.
The district police have trained over 500 youth in driving and provided valid driving licences to eke out a living by running taxi services in places such as Araku and Paderu.
The district police have also trained a few hundred youth as automobile technicians and also provided kits worth ₹15,000 to start their own business. For the women we are providing training in nursing and over 100 have already got trained and are placed.
Tourism sector
“Apart from training the tribal youth in competitive examinations, we are also preparing them to take the test for police and army recruitment. There is a huge scope in tourism sector and we are focussing on training tribal youth for this sector and as security guards,” said Mr. Babujee.
According to the SP, sports is another area that the police is focussing on. “Volleyball is a keenly played sport in the tribal belts and we are organising coaching camps and tournaments to encourage them. We are also encouraging wrestling,” he said.