Naxalism in India

Rise and growth of Naxalism is like termites for India where it is very easy to mend the thoughts of people out of such a huge population. Naxalism was started in a village named Naxalbari in West Bengal where a few people revolted against a landlord for equal land distribution. It is a major cause of concern of internal security threats in India. The government has initiated various operations to control them, various schemes for their upliftment and development.

This article will give you key insights for GS Paper- III under Security and Disaster Management of UPSC IAS Exam.

Contents

• What is Naxalism?
• Spread of Naxalism in India
• All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
• Causes of naxalism in India
• Government’s approach to deal with Naxalism
• Suggestions to improve conditions of Tribals
• Conclusion
• FAQs

What is Naxalism?

• Naxalism is an extremist ideology which does not believe in the ideology of democracy and democratic process and administer violent methods to destabilise the democratic structure.
• Naxalites are far left radical communists who derive their political ideology from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong who called it Protracted Peoples War.
• Majority of people of naxalite group belongs to labourer, adivasi, and unemployed and mostly of them are living in remote area where the development has failed to reach yet.
• In India about 8% people are adivasi and 92% of them living in tribal areas such as forest and hills.
• These tribal areas are located far away from development or the government has failed to give them a secure or peaceful life.
• Currently, this group of people are active in 72 districts of 9 different states.

Spread of Naxalism in India:

• The Naxalites have originated in Naxalbari village in Darjeeling district of West Bengal thus, called as Naxals.
• It has started in 1967 as a rebellion against local landlords who bashed a peasant over a land dispute in order to gain lawful distribution of the land to peasants.
• This movement was started in one police station of a single district in West Bengal.
• Since then, there has been a rise of naxals in India up to 72 districts across 9 states.
  • Particularly spread in rural areas of southern and eastern India including in the state of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana despite the police force and infrastructure having grown manifold during this period.
• They use an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to blow up the government authorities and affect the lives of common people.

All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries:

• Later the All-India Coordination Committee in Kolkata was founded by Kanu Sanyal.
• This committee was renamed as All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR).
• AICCCR started Guerilla warfare tactics, established rural revolutionary base areas, and targeted cities where parliamentary elections were not been conducted to spread their agenda.
• AICCCR has founded revolutionary party CPI Marxist-Lenninist (ML) in 1969 based on Maoist ideology.
• They were responsible to spread naxalism to Odisha, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
• During emergency of 1975, many of them were arrested by police.
• After emergency, the naxal attacks increased manifolds, when CPI (ML) was converted to People’s War Group (PWGs) in 1980.
• Naxalists have been a strain on India’s security forces and barrier to development of vast mineral rich region in Eastern India known as the Red corridor.
  • Red corridor or red zone is the region in the eastern, central and the southern parts of India where the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency has the strongest presence.
• All forms of Naxalite organisations have been declared as terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of India (1967).

Map of Red corridor in India:

Causes of naxalism in India:

• Socio-economic problems of tribals along with lack of government support for their development has become a pretty much a reason for rise of naxalism.
• Jal-Jangal-Jameen: Issues of land has been the cause of starting of naxalism in Darjeeling including:
  • Evasion of land ceiling law
  • Land acquisition without proper compensation and rehabilitation
  • Non–regularisation of traditional land rights
  • Disruption of tribal-forest relationship
• Developmental deficit:
  • Unemployment
  • Poverty
  • Infrastructure deficit
  • Lack of education
  • Poor Health facilities
• Social exclusion:
  • Violation of human rights
  • Disconnect with mainstream society
  • Abuse of dignity of life
• Governance deficit:
  • Lack of administration
  • Mismanagement and corruption in government schemes
  • Unsatisfactory functioning of local government
• Economic deprivation:

Government’s approach to deal with Naxalism:

SAMADHAN scheme: It was announced by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2017 to frame short term and long-term policies to tackle left wing extremist.

• SAMADHAN stands for:
  • Smart leadership
  • Aggressive strategy
  • Motivation and training
  • Actionable intelligence
  • Dashboard-based KPIs (key performance indicators) and KRAs (key result areas)
  • Harnessing technology
  • Action plan for each theatre and
  • No access to financing

Roshni scheme:

• It is a placement linked skill development scheme targeting 50,000 rural men and women.
• It covers particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) on a priority basis.
  • A particularly vulnerable tribal group or PVTG (previously known as a Primitive tribal group), is a sub-classification of Scheduled Tribe that is considered more vulnerable than a regular Scheduled Tribe.

Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS):

• It imparts quality education to the youth in areas affected by left wing extremism.

Other schemes:

• Road Connectivity Project for LWE affected areas (RCPLWEA): 10,600 km roads have been constructed with an expenditure of approximately Rs. 13,000 crores for better connectivity in naxal affected states.
• National Policy and Action Plan to Address LWE has resulted in consistent decline of LWE violence and its geographical spread.
• The government has launched National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) forproviding 100 days job to a male member of a family.
• Aspirational Districts Programme: Launched in 2018, it aims to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas, mainly targets left-wing affected areas.
• Operation Green Hunt was an anti-naxal operation initiated in 2009 as the all-out offensive by paramilitary forces and the states forces along five states in the Red Corridor.

Suggestions to improve conditions of Tribals:

• Setup proper Infrastructure to Educate the people living in Remote Areas:
  • As per census 2011, the literacy rate of India was 74.04% and in remote or tribal areas it was 38%.
• Due to lack of proper education the peoples living there are not aware about the consequences of their act.
•  Some educated peoples of this area are fighting to give their child a proper education environment which the government failed to give them.

Employment to the youth:

• Tribal are mainly living at remote rural areas, hills and forest where infrastructural facilities such as road transport, electricity, healthcare, educational institutions are not available.
  • Due to this the people living there have failed to get job.

Conclusion:

Even after 75 years of Independence, 27% of people are living below poverty line, where 25% of population residing in Tribal and hilly Naxal affected area is still uneducated. The government should take necessary measures to implement the government various plans such as – NREGA, PDS, Mid-day meal. The government should take necessary measures to setup a translucent administration system where the honest, sincere officials should be appointed and they are persuaded to help poor and downtrodden class. The presence of social responsibility is expected from industrialists who are doing business in these areas should setup school, colleges and health centre for the welfare of the people living here. India is never against an individual but it is always against the method of Naxalites asking for rights and development.

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FAQs(Frequently Asked Questions)