By Sujeet Kumar
Dantewada (Chhattisgarh), April 12, 2010 (IANS) Hundreds of impoverished tribal families caught in the crossfire between security forces and Maoists in the vast forested terrain of Bastar are feeling traumatised, with many deserting their homes in anticipation of an intensified conflict.
They fear the area will turn into a "war zone" in the coming weeks after the Maoists massacred 75 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and one policeman April 6 in Chintalnar forest. "We are leaving our houses, everyone is in a rush to desert their village because all are believe that CRPF may attack Mukram village and other areas of Chintalnar forest where the troopers had a night stay before being killed by 'dadas' (Maoists). Police may think we tipped off the dadas about the CRPF night halt that day," Poriam Bella, an 18-year-old resident of Mukram village, told IANS. Fear runs deep in the minds of these tribals in the 40,000 sq km economically backward Bastar area, of which up to 25,000 sq km is believed to be intensively mined. They are afraid they may be killed by police after being branded as Maoists or by Maoists after being called police informers. An elderly resident of Chintagufa said: "There is no end to our agony. About 50,000 people had been left homeless by Salwa Judum (a government backed civil militia movement launched in June 2005), but life was beginning to look up for a few month as some tribals were beginning to return. "But now a strong rumour that the CRPF may go after civilians for allegedly supporting Maoists has returned to haunt," he said. The feeling of CRPF revenge attacks has also gripped a stretch from Sukma area in Dantewada district on national highway 221 down to Konta towards Andhra Pradesh via Dornapal. Bastar is made up of five districts - Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar and Kanker - and is known as one of India's most impoverished pockets. "The Bastar region is clearly dubbed as India's nerve centre of Maoist terrorism, up to 25,000 sq km of area is intensively mined, explosives exist six feet below the ground," said Vishwa Ranjan, Chhattisgarh director general of police. He said police has taken out 1,010 mines from the Bastar jungles since 2004 but the rebels have filled it with explosives again.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Maoists kill 75 police in central India attack
By Sujeet Kumar
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Maoist rebels killed at least 75 police by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops around dense forest in central India on Tuesday, in one of the worst attacks by the insurgents in years.
The ambush by more than 700 Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state highlights the strong rebel presence in large swathes of India, especially remote rural areas left out of the booming economy.
Recent attacks on police have raised questions over how well prepared security forces are to tackle the Maoists, especially during a counter-offensive by security forces this year.
"Something has gone very wrong," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap."
Police said the Maoist rebels, who control several areas rich in mineral resources, had retreated into the forest in the Dantewada district of the Bastar region, home to government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Ltd, the largest in India.
Tuesday's attack left mining operations unaffected, but mining officials were rattled.
"There is an absolute panic," S.P. Himanshu Kumar, the deputy general manager of NDMC, frequently attacked by Maoists.
Reinforcements trying to collect the bodies came under fire by the Maoists who had surrounded the area. Two Indian Air Force helicopters were used in a rescue operation.
"This is a big disaster and it shows the paramilitary forces are obviously not trained to tackle the Maoists' rebellion and they don't seem to have enough intelligence," said retired Major General Ravi Arora, editor of Indian Military Review.
Maoists regularly attack rail lines and factories, hurting business potentially worth billions of dollars in mineral-rich and often remote regions. They extort more than $300 million from companies every year, the government says.
"The growing activities of Maoists in Bastar in Chhattisgarh are threatening iron ore mining," said Ashok Surana, head of a leading industrial body, Mini Steel Plant Association.
"The iron ore miners fear that the authorities might end up ceding control of Bastar's ore reserves in five years if the dominance of the area by the insurgents is not checked urgently."
TAKEN BY SURPRISE
The Congress-led government has been accused of failing to deal with the insurgents, and the security issue could be important in several state elections over the next two years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the gravest threat to India's internal security, and voiced his "shock" at Tuesday's attack. The rebels carried out more than 1,000 attacks last year, killing more than 600 people.
The rebels number between 6,000 and 8,000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.
Tuesday's attack echoed a similar ambush in February, when Maoists caught police off guard in a daylight attack in the state of West Bengal, killing at least two dozen police.
On Sunday, rebels triggered a land mine blast that killed 10 police in the mineral-rich eastern state of Orissa.
Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to an offensive that began late last year in several states, which officials say has for the first time weakened the decades-old movement.
The government has offered peace talks to the Maoists on condition the rebels abjure violence. The Maoists say they want the government offensive to stop first.
Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and are trying to expand their influence in east, central and southern India. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Maoist rebels killed at least 75 police by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops around dense forest in central India on Tuesday, in one of the worst attacks by the insurgents in years.
The ambush by more than 700 Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state highlights the strong rebel presence in large swathes of India, especially remote rural areas left out of the booming economy.
Recent attacks on police have raised questions over how well prepared security forces are to tackle the Maoists, especially during a counter-offensive by security forces this year.
"Something has gone very wrong," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap."
Police said the Maoist rebels, who control several areas rich in mineral resources, had retreated into the forest in the Dantewada district of the Bastar region, home to government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Ltd, the largest in India.
Tuesday's attack left mining operations unaffected, but mining officials were rattled.
"There is an absolute panic," S.P. Himanshu Kumar, the deputy general manager of NDMC, frequently attacked by Maoists.
Reinforcements trying to collect the bodies came under fire by the Maoists who had surrounded the area. Two Indian Air Force helicopters were used in a rescue operation.
"This is a big disaster and it shows the paramilitary forces are obviously not trained to tackle the Maoists' rebellion and they don't seem to have enough intelligence," said retired Major General Ravi Arora, editor of Indian Military Review.
Maoists regularly attack rail lines and factories, hurting business potentially worth billions of dollars in mineral-rich and often remote regions. They extort more than $300 million from companies every year, the government says.
"The growing activities of Maoists in Bastar in Chhattisgarh are threatening iron ore mining," said Ashok Surana, head of a leading industrial body, Mini Steel Plant Association.
"The iron ore miners fear that the authorities might end up ceding control of Bastar's ore reserves in five years if the dominance of the area by the insurgents is not checked urgently."
TAKEN BY SURPRISE
The Congress-led government has been accused of failing to deal with the insurgents, and the security issue could be important in several state elections over the next two years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the gravest threat to India's internal security, and voiced his "shock" at Tuesday's attack. The rebels carried out more than 1,000 attacks last year, killing more than 600 people.
The rebels number between 6,000 and 8,000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.
Tuesday's attack echoed a similar ambush in February, when Maoists caught police off guard in a daylight attack in the state of West Bengal, killing at least two dozen police.
On Sunday, rebels triggered a land mine blast that killed 10 police in the mineral-rich eastern state of Orissa.
Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to an offensive that began late last year in several states, which officials say has for the first time weakened the decades-old movement.
The government has offered peace talks to the Maoists on condition the rebels abjure violence. The Maoists say they want the government offensive to stop first.
Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and are trying to expand their influence in east, central and southern India. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Indian police recount horror of Maoist death-trap
By Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India, July 11, 2007 (Reuters) - The Maoist rebels who shot dead 24 Indian policemen in the jungles of central India disfigured several victims' heads with axe blows and stripped the corpses of shoes and socks, police witnesses said on Wednesday.Fresh details of Monday's grisly gunbattle in Chhattisgarh state emerged from policemen who had survived what they describe as a well-designed ambush by rebels armed with AK-47 automatic rifles and mortars inside a hilly, dense jungle."Initially Maoists had fired a few shots in the air and panicked all of us," a police commander who was part of the 115-strong unit told Reuters by telephone. He wanted his name withheld because he is not allowed to speak to the press."Then there was a brief silence and we all thought that the rebels had run away," he added. "But then all of a sudden they attacked with mortars and AK-47s."Some of the policemen knew the terrain and fled. The rest were trapped, the commander said. Police blame a lack of back-up forces for the number of police deaths that followed.The rebels, part of an insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives since the late 1960s, stole at least five AK-47 assault rifles and more than a dozen other rifles from the dead policemen, police said.Police said they had killed and injured several rebels but were unsure of numbers because the insurgents routinely carry away the bodies of dead comrades after battles.Combing operations were continuing in Dantewada district with larger back-up forces than before but no specific attempt to find the rebels involved in the fighting has been launched, said R.K. Vij, a senior police official in the area.Police were still struggling on Wednesday to identify some of the victims' disfigured and bullet-ridden bodies, carried back to base camp on bamboo and rope stretchers a day after they fell.The bodies would soon be returned to the families for funeral rites.The Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, say they are fighting for the rights of millions of poor peasants and landless labourers.They operate in a large swathe of India stretching from the east to some southern states, and focus their attacks on government officials and property.
RAIPUR, India, July 11, 2007 (Reuters) - The Maoist rebels who shot dead 24 Indian policemen in the jungles of central India disfigured several victims' heads with axe blows and stripped the corpses of shoes and socks, police witnesses said on Wednesday.Fresh details of Monday's grisly gunbattle in Chhattisgarh state emerged from policemen who had survived what they describe as a well-designed ambush by rebels armed with AK-47 automatic rifles and mortars inside a hilly, dense jungle."Initially Maoists had fired a few shots in the air and panicked all of us," a police commander who was part of the 115-strong unit told Reuters by telephone. He wanted his name withheld because he is not allowed to speak to the press."Then there was a brief silence and we all thought that the rebels had run away," he added. "But then all of a sudden they attacked with mortars and AK-47s."Some of the policemen knew the terrain and fled. The rest were trapped, the commander said. Police blame a lack of back-up forces for the number of police deaths that followed.The rebels, part of an insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives since the late 1960s, stole at least five AK-47 assault rifles and more than a dozen other rifles from the dead policemen, police said.Police said they had killed and injured several rebels but were unsure of numbers because the insurgents routinely carry away the bodies of dead comrades after battles.Combing operations were continuing in Dantewada district with larger back-up forces than before but no specific attempt to find the rebels involved in the fighting has been launched, said R.K. Vij, a senior police official in the area.Police were still struggling on Wednesday to identify some of the victims' disfigured and bullet-ridden bodies, carried back to base camp on bamboo and rope stretchers a day after they fell.The bodies would soon be returned to the families for funeral rites.The Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, say they are fighting for the rights of millions of poor peasants and landless labourers.They operate in a large swathe of India stretching from the east to some southern states, and focus their attacks on government officials and property.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Chhattisgarh stares at massive health threat - sickle cell anaemia
Sujeet Kumar
Raipur, Aug 26 2009, (IANS) Nearly three million people in Chhattisgarh are said to be suffering from sickle cell anaemia, a genetic disorder that can be life threatening. The state is now screening its entire population in the 3-15 age group to detect the disease early and step up awareness.
The Centre for Genetic Diseases and Molecular Biology, set up by the state government to control the disease, has launched the Chhattisgarh Sickle Cell Screening Project to take blood samples.
'Some 200,000 people have been screened in Raipur district so far and approximately 9-10 percent of the population has been found to be either sickle cell carriers or suffering from the disease. The carrier is basically a heterogeneous gene that has the potential to transmit the disease,' Pradeep Kumar Patra, in-charge of the centre, told IANS.
The government hopes that by screening the 3-15 age group, carriers as well as patients of the disease can be detected early and provided medical care and counselling. Sickle cell anaemia is an incurable disorder.
He said though the disorder is prevalent in all the 18 districts of the state, it is alarming in 10 of them that have a high population of certain Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities and tribes, among whom the disorder is very common.
'The problem in rural areas is that people are not much aware of the disease,' he remarked, adding, 'Chhattisgarh should be considered a 'nucleus' of the sickle cell disorder in India though it is prevalent in its neighbouring states - Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Andhra Pradesh.'
In Chhattisgarh, the disease has attained alarming proportions with more than 50 percent of affected children dying before the age of five and many others in the prime of their youth.
'Though we don't have actual data of patients suffering from sickle cell disease, the estimated figure is up to 15 percent or three million of the state's 20 million population,' S.M.M. Murthy, senior heath official with the Directorate of Health Services, told IANS.
Murthy, who is also the state nodal officer of the government's Sickle Cell Disorder Control Programme since it was launched in late 2004, said: 'Thousands of people in the state are succumbing to sickle cell anaemia annually because most of the patients who live in illiteracy-hit pockets are not turning up at health centres for blood tests and thus end up transmitting the disease to their children.'
A sickle cell patient, Pawan Kumar Sahu, 43, who works as office-secretary, Raipur Press Club, narrates, 'I feel extreme stress in veins, mainly in both legs, and it looks that someone has been inserting a needle hard in my veins, it really creates unbearable pain'.
'Neither of my parents had sickle cell disease nor do my two daughters have it. As far as family history of the disease is concerned, only one cousin suffered from it. I have to regularly get admitted to the hospital when the pain becomes intolerable.
'Last week I was discharged from a hospital, but the pain I felt during the period still haunts me'.
The sickle cell disorder is an inherited genetic lifelong blood disorder characterised by red blood cells assuming an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape. Sickling decreases the cell's flexibility and results in a risk of serious complications.
The sickling occurs because of a mutation in the haemoglobin gene. Life expectancy is substantially shortened among patients.
When sickle-shaped cells block small blood vessels, less blood can reach that part of the body. A tissue that does not receive normal blood flow eventually becomes damaged; this is what causes the complications of the sickle cell disease.
(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)
Raipur, Aug 26 2009, (IANS) Nearly three million people in Chhattisgarh are said to be suffering from sickle cell anaemia, a genetic disorder that can be life threatening. The state is now screening its entire population in the 3-15 age group to detect the disease early and step up awareness.
The Centre for Genetic Diseases and Molecular Biology, set up by the state government to control the disease, has launched the Chhattisgarh Sickle Cell Screening Project to take blood samples.
'Some 200,000 people have been screened in Raipur district so far and approximately 9-10 percent of the population has been found to be either sickle cell carriers or suffering from the disease. The carrier is basically a heterogeneous gene that has the potential to transmit the disease,' Pradeep Kumar Patra, in-charge of the centre, told IANS.
The government hopes that by screening the 3-15 age group, carriers as well as patients of the disease can be detected early and provided medical care and counselling. Sickle cell anaemia is an incurable disorder.
He said though the disorder is prevalent in all the 18 districts of the state, it is alarming in 10 of them that have a high population of certain Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities and tribes, among whom the disorder is very common.
'The problem in rural areas is that people are not much aware of the disease,' he remarked, adding, 'Chhattisgarh should be considered a 'nucleus' of the sickle cell disorder in India though it is prevalent in its neighbouring states - Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Andhra Pradesh.'
In Chhattisgarh, the disease has attained alarming proportions with more than 50 percent of affected children dying before the age of five and many others in the prime of their youth.
'Though we don't have actual data of patients suffering from sickle cell disease, the estimated figure is up to 15 percent or three million of the state's 20 million population,' S.M.M. Murthy, senior heath official with the Directorate of Health Services, told IANS.
Murthy, who is also the state nodal officer of the government's Sickle Cell Disorder Control Programme since it was launched in late 2004, said: 'Thousands of people in the state are succumbing to sickle cell anaemia annually because most of the patients who live in illiteracy-hit pockets are not turning up at health centres for blood tests and thus end up transmitting the disease to their children.'
A sickle cell patient, Pawan Kumar Sahu, 43, who works as office-secretary, Raipur Press Club, narrates, 'I feel extreme stress in veins, mainly in both legs, and it looks that someone has been inserting a needle hard in my veins, it really creates unbearable pain'.
'Neither of my parents had sickle cell disease nor do my two daughters have it. As far as family history of the disease is concerned, only one cousin suffered from it. I have to regularly get admitted to the hospital when the pain becomes intolerable.
'Last week I was discharged from a hospital, but the pain I felt during the period still haunts me'.
The sickle cell disorder is an inherited genetic lifelong blood disorder characterised by red blood cells assuming an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape. Sickling decreases the cell's flexibility and results in a risk of serious complications.
The sickling occurs because of a mutation in the haemoglobin gene. Life expectancy is substantially shortened among patients.
When sickle-shaped cells block small blood vessels, less blood can reach that part of the body. A tissue that does not receive normal blood flow eventually becomes damaged; this is what causes the complications of the sickle cell disease.
(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
India Maoists extort $60 mln/yr in mineral-rich state
By Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India, July 9 (Reuters) - India's Maoist rebels are extorting up to $60 million annually from business and industry across Chhattisgarh state, home of one of India's largest mineral reserves, the state's chief minister said on Thursday.
The Maoists have recently stepped up attacks against police, officials and civilians away from remote rural areas and closer to towns and cities across India -- a worry to potential investors as the country grapples with the global slowdown.
"Maoists extort a whopping sum of at least 250-300 crore rupees ($50-60 million) annually in Chhattisgarh," the state's chief minister, Raman Singh, told reporters.
State business leaders and politicians are jittery over Chhattisgarh, whose violence-wracked Bastar region is home to 20 percent of India's iron ore stocks and has attracted big hitters like Tata Steel (TISC.BO) and the Essar Group [ESRG.UL].
The extortion operation stretches from the state's southern tip near Bastar to the northern area of Surguja, which is rich with coal, he said.
The rebels demand cash from traders of Tendu patta, used to make hand-rolled cigarettes, mining firms, contractors and transporters, he said, adding many are scared to go to police.
The Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and the landless, feed off local resentment against industry and government in one of India's least developed states.
Businesses and politicians fear the mineral reserves in Bastar, where Tata Steel plans to build a steel plant, could fall into Maoist hands within a few years.
Steel is a key sector to India's economic growth, which has slowed to around 7 percent compared to 9 percent or more per year before the global financial crisis bit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist army of 22,000 fighters is one of the greatest threats to India's internal security.
The rebels killed 721 people, including members of the security forces, in 2008, mainly in India's eastern and central states known as the "red corridor", up from 696 in 2007.
RAIPUR, India, July 9 (Reuters) - India's Maoist rebels are extorting up to $60 million annually from business and industry across Chhattisgarh state, home of one of India's largest mineral reserves, the state's chief minister said on Thursday.
The Maoists have recently stepped up attacks against police, officials and civilians away from remote rural areas and closer to towns and cities across India -- a worry to potential investors as the country grapples with the global slowdown.
"Maoists extort a whopping sum of at least 250-300 crore rupees ($50-60 million) annually in Chhattisgarh," the state's chief minister, Raman Singh, told reporters.
State business leaders and politicians are jittery over Chhattisgarh, whose violence-wracked Bastar region is home to 20 percent of India's iron ore stocks and has attracted big hitters like Tata Steel (TISC.BO) and the Essar Group [ESRG.UL].
The extortion operation stretches from the state's southern tip near Bastar to the northern area of Surguja, which is rich with coal, he said.
The rebels demand cash from traders of Tendu patta, used to make hand-rolled cigarettes, mining firms, contractors and transporters, he said, adding many are scared to go to police.
The Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and the landless, feed off local resentment against industry and government in one of India's least developed states.
Businesses and politicians fear the mineral reserves in Bastar, where Tata Steel plans to build a steel plant, could fall into Maoist hands within a few years.
Steel is a key sector to India's economic growth, which has slowed to around 7 percent compared to 9 percent or more per year before the global financial crisis bit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist army of 22,000 fighters is one of the greatest threats to India's internal security.
The rebels killed 721 people, including members of the security forces, in 2008, mainly in India's eastern and central states known as the "red corridor", up from 696 in 2007.
Maoist militancy takes heavy toll on school education
By Sujeet Kumar
Dornapal (Chhattisgarh), Feb 17 (IANS) By bombing hundreds of schools since 2005, Maoist militants have taken a heavy toll on education in Chhattisgarh, officials say.
"Education and children's life have been severely hit in Bastar's interiors, militancy has virtually destroyed school education in vast areas where schools were either blown up or a majority of teachers refused to attend schools due to risks to their lives," Raja Toram, a teacher based in this small town in Dantewada district, some 500 km south of capital Raipur, told IANS.
The mineral-rich Bastar region spread over about 40,000 sq km in the south of the state has witnessed over 1,500 casualties in Maoist violence since 2005 and at least 440 school buildings have been bombed by Maoist rebels after the government started to use the buildings as temporary shelters for securitymen.
Officials estimate that Maoist militancy has denied at least 100,000 children access to primary education since 2005 in Bastar, especially after a government-backed controversial civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, started against the guerrillas in June 2005.
Bastar -- termed the nerve centre of Maoist militancy in India -- has five districts, Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Kanker. After the birth of Salwa Judum, a large number of troopers occupied the school buildings for anti-Maoist drives and the rebels retaliated by targeting schools.
School teacher Toram said that Maoists were making the most of children's lack of access to education by forcibly recruiting into their ranks those who had dropped out. The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has a children's unit called Bal Sangham.
Dantewada district Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra said: "Militancy has surely affected education. Dozens of schools based in forest areas were blown off by militants though schools that come under the 'war zone' are being relocated to Salwa Judum base camps or areas where schools can be protected by forces. But attendance has dropped heavily."
Om Prakash, sub-divisional police officer at Dornapal -- an area which witnessed a string of deadly attacks by Maoists since 2005 -- remarked: "Children's life and their education have been really the worst hit since 2005; the primary school students are not enjoying education at relief camps under security cover as they earlier were in their villages."
He added: "The whole educational system in interiors has been devastated; Maoists are taking advantage of the situation and persuading parents to send their kids to Bal Sangham for which recruitment age starts at six."
The NGO Human Rights Watch released a book in July 2008, titled "Being Neutral Is Our Biggest Crime". It had two chapters - one called "Recruitment and Use of Children" and the other "Impact of the Conflict on Education".
The book says: "Naxalites (Maoists) usually enlist children between ages six and 12 into Bal Sanghams, the village level children's association where children learn Maoist ideology. Most children who are part of Bal Sanghams also work as informers and are trained in the use of non-lethal weapons such as sticks..."
"In some cases, Naxalites approach parents and pressure them to send their children to join the 'people's war'. In other cases, Naxalites visit schools and ask children to join them."
Quoting a former Maoist leader, Subha Atish, the book said: "They go to school and ask children to join a dalam (unit). This has happened in the Jagargonda area."
Jagargonda, in Dantewada district, is near Dornapal, where the state's most populous Salwa Judum camp houses over 10,000 residents who have fled their villages, plus a Central Reserve Police Force company to guard them.
Authorities deny that the presence of troopers is affecting studies. "At present, there are security forces staying in around 40 schools. Of them, 18 are schools where classes are going on at the same time. The other 22 are school buildings that had already been damaged after being bombed by Maoists and no classes could be held there any way," a Dantewada district official said.
(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)
--Indo-Asian News Service
Dornapal (Chhattisgarh), Feb 17 (IANS) By bombing hundreds of schools since 2005, Maoist militants have taken a heavy toll on education in Chhattisgarh, officials say.
"Education and children's life have been severely hit in Bastar's interiors, militancy has virtually destroyed school education in vast areas where schools were either blown up or a majority of teachers refused to attend schools due to risks to their lives," Raja Toram, a teacher based in this small town in Dantewada district, some 500 km south of capital Raipur, told IANS.
The mineral-rich Bastar region spread over about 40,000 sq km in the south of the state has witnessed over 1,500 casualties in Maoist violence since 2005 and at least 440 school buildings have been bombed by Maoist rebels after the government started to use the buildings as temporary shelters for securitymen.
Officials estimate that Maoist militancy has denied at least 100,000 children access to primary education since 2005 in Bastar, especially after a government-backed controversial civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, started against the guerrillas in June 2005.
Bastar -- termed the nerve centre of Maoist militancy in India -- has five districts, Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Kanker. After the birth of Salwa Judum, a large number of troopers occupied the school buildings for anti-Maoist drives and the rebels retaliated by targeting schools.
School teacher Toram said that Maoists were making the most of children's lack of access to education by forcibly recruiting into their ranks those who had dropped out. The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has a children's unit called Bal Sangham.
Dantewada district Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra said: "Militancy has surely affected education. Dozens of schools based in forest areas were blown off by militants though schools that come under the 'war zone' are being relocated to Salwa Judum base camps or areas where schools can be protected by forces. But attendance has dropped heavily."
Om Prakash, sub-divisional police officer at Dornapal -- an area which witnessed a string of deadly attacks by Maoists since 2005 -- remarked: "Children's life and their education have been really the worst hit since 2005; the primary school students are not enjoying education at relief camps under security cover as they earlier were in their villages."
He added: "The whole educational system in interiors has been devastated; Maoists are taking advantage of the situation and persuading parents to send their kids to Bal Sangham for which recruitment age starts at six."
The NGO Human Rights Watch released a book in July 2008, titled "Being Neutral Is Our Biggest Crime". It had two chapters - one called "Recruitment and Use of Children" and the other "Impact of the Conflict on Education".
The book says: "Naxalites (Maoists) usually enlist children between ages six and 12 into Bal Sanghams, the village level children's association where children learn Maoist ideology. Most children who are part of Bal Sanghams also work as informers and are trained in the use of non-lethal weapons such as sticks..."
"In some cases, Naxalites approach parents and pressure them to send their children to join the 'people's war'. In other cases, Naxalites visit schools and ask children to join them."
Quoting a former Maoist leader, Subha Atish, the book said: "They go to school and ask children to join a dalam (unit). This has happened in the Jagargonda area."
Jagargonda, in Dantewada district, is near Dornapal, where the state's most populous Salwa Judum camp houses over 10,000 residents who have fled their villages, plus a Central Reserve Police Force company to guard them.
Authorities deny that the presence of troopers is affecting studies. "At present, there are security forces staying in around 40 schools. Of them, 18 are schools where classes are going on at the same time. The other 22 are school buildings that had already been damaged after being bombed by Maoists and no classes could be held there any way," a Dantewada district official said.
(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)
--Indo-Asian News Service
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