RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh has witnessed more casualties of women Maoist cadres than any other Indian state. The outlawed CPI (Maoist) is believed to be most active in Chhattisgarh where they have been waging a war on the security forces for nearly four decades.
On October 21, in Gadchiroli district (Maharashtra), five Maoists were killed in exchange of fire on a late evening of October 21. Three among them—Sukhmati, Rita and Jaya are women from Bastar.
What remains striking in the combat zone is the high percentage of women Maoists killed by the security forces in gun-battle in the insurgency-hit south Chhattisgarh.
As many as 193 naxalites so far in gunfight with security forces across different strife-torn districts of Bastar and among the rebels eliminated were 68 female fighters, which is over 35 per cent of the tally.
Why more women cadres are killed in Chhattisgarh, according to senior police officials having a long stint working in insurgency-hit areas, is their placement in the outer patrolling and external quadrants of the Maoists, as they equally fight from the front.
Senior police officers with long experience of working in the conflict-ridden zone of Bastar stated that there being no gender discrimination among tribal communities, the same practice apparently percolated into Maoist organisation. Consequently, the Maoist women cadres have substantial presence — almost 40-45 percent are in the lower and middle order though in their top hierarchy bias persists with no woman given a place in the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist).
“The organisational structure of the banned outfit in Chhattisgarh is quite unusual where the women force constitute over forty percent of its strength. Sadly, they are misled Indian tribal women who are capable of performing the role as warrior”, said Brigadier (Rtd) B K Ponwar, jungle warfare expert.