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