Orissa assesses unemployment among tribals to stop Maoists

The Orissa government is contemplating a house-to-house survey to assess unemployment among tribal families after large numbers of tribals in the state are embracing left-wing extremism helping Maoists consolidate their ground.

The government has also decided to raise a special police force from among the tribal youth in order to engage the community, PTI reported  

It was not known if it was modelled on the failed pattern of neighbouring Chattisgarh where adolescent youths were recruited as special police officers or SPOs to counter tribals.
 
The survey of tribal jobless youth is being linked with the spurt in Maoist activity in the tribal-dominated districts of  Sundergarh, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Gajapati and Kandhamal. Government attributes it to lack of employment among the youth leading to their feeling of isolation in society.

The state's Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said that end of isolation among the tribal youth would bring down Maoist problems.

Tribals about 80 lakh families in all comprise 22 per cent of the state population and were a strong support base for the Maoists, he said, adding that the government had realised, though belatedly, that to tackle the spread of the Maoists it had to take care of the 'misguided' youth.

That the tribals gave support to the extremists was evident from the police's failure in nabbing a single Maoist involved in attack on Nayagarh on February 15.  

Though more than 500 Maoists executed the killing, loot and terror in Nayagarh, the police could not make a single arrest obviously because of the protection given by the tribals.  

However, it remained unclear why primary school teachers in the tribal-dominated districts had pro-Maoist leaning, even to the point of sympathising with them.  

Tripathy hazarded a guess, saying the teachers' support could be due to two factors: either threat or attraction of the Maoist ideology.