Beyond guns, Bastar youth think of professional trades

Naxalites have been targeting unemployed youths to join cadre

Once skilled for pulling the trigger or detonating powerful explosives, youth in Naxal heartland of Bastar in Chhattisgarh are now skilling in professional trades.
 

The unemployed youth had been a soft target of the Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) to join the cadre. The rebels train the youths in using arms and ammunition in a military model. The youths in country’s worst Naxal-infested pockets are now thinking beyond the guns.
 

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said skill development training had been imparted to 20,000 youths of state’s Naxal-affected region.  “The state is getting good results from the innovations started,” he said at the recent Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi.
 

Chhattisgarh is, in fact, the first state in the country to enforce legislation and give the right to skill development for youths. Taking the skill enhancement programme to a different level the government started livelihood colleges in every district.
 

Seeing the necessity of skill development, the state government is spending over Rs 400 crore from its budget annually. The Centre has also started skill development programme in 34 worst Naxal-infested districts across the country. Of the districts, seven are from Chhattisgarh including all the five districts of Bastar.
 

The state was allotted a fund of Rs 2,677 crore from the Centre’s fund. The move is an integrated approach by focusing on development, security and rights and entitlements of local communities to end the Naxal violence.
 

According to intelligence reports, the cadre strength of the Naxalites had been fast depleting while the youths were showing least interest to join. This was a big jolt for the rebels as they were failing to get new recruits.