Violence related to Left Wing Extremism down by 76% in 2022 as compared to 2010- Home Minister.

• The Home Minister, while chairing the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on LWE, gave details about Left Wing Extremism.

More on the news

• Reduction of deaths: According to the Union Home Minister, for the first time in four decades, the number of deaths of civilians and security forces in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) came down to under 100 in 2022.
• Left Wing Extremism has come down by 76% in 2022 as compared to 2010.
• He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs is determined to destroy the entire ecosystem of LWEs by financial choking.
• MHA’s policy to deal with LWE has three main pillars:
  • Strategy to curb extremist violence with ruthless approach,
  • Better coordination between Centre and states, and
  • Eliminating support for LWE through public participation in development.
• Strengthening Armed Forces:
  • New camps: Sharing details of the measures taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs, he said since 2019, the armed forces had established 175 new camps to plug the security vacuum in the LWE-infested zones.
  • BSF Air Wing: The BSF air wing has been strengthened with the induction of new pilots and engineers in the last one year to aid operations in LWE-affected areas.
  • Police stations: Funds were also provided to the State police forces for modernisation and assistance related to construction of fortified police stations.

Left-wing Extremism (LWE) in India

• Left-wing extremists, popularly known as Maoists worldwide and as Naxalites/Naxalism in India, has been a major threat to India since the 1960s. The term Naxalism derives from the name of the Naxalbari village in West Bengal where a peasant revolt took place against local landlords over a land dispute in 1967.
• Red Corridor: The influence zone of LWE in India is called the Red corridor, which has been steadily declining in terms of geographical coverage and number of violent incidents.

Government’s initiatives

• As part of the goal to ensure all-round development in the affected areas, several special schemes were being implemented apart from the flagship programmes of the Central government.

1. SAMADHAN doctrine: It is the one-stop solution for the LWE problem. It encompasses the entire strategy of government from short-term policy to long-term policy formulated at different levels. SAMADHAN stands for-
2. ROSHNI : It is a special initiative under, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (Formerly Ajeevika Skills), launched in June 2013 for training and placement of rural poor youth from 27 LWE-affected districts in 09 States.
3. Intelligence sharing and raising of a separate 66 Indian Reserved Battalion(IRBs), CRPF battalions like COBRA battalion, Bastariya battalion etc were done by the government to curb the menace of LWE organizations.
4. Improvements in Road Connectivity and Mobile connectivity and opening of Banks, ATMs & Post offices
5. Eklavya Residential Model School: So far, 245 Eklavya schools had been sanctioned in 90 LWE-affected districts and 121 of them were now functional.