RAIPUR: Crumbling under relentless pressure from security forces, Maoists in Bastar may be recruiting child soldiers as young as nine years old.
A handwritten Maoist letter in Telugu found at a recent encounter site in a forest in Bijapur’s Abujhmarh claims that CPI (Maoist) has recruited 130 cadres from Marh region, 80 of them minors, including children aged nine. It says these raw recruits are undergoing training in “guerrilla warfare, weapon handling and IED-making”.
It also paints a picture of an insurgent organisation in disarray, low on morale and fighters, and the gnawing realisation of being locked in a losing battle. Union home minister Amit Shah has vowed that Naxalism will be uprooted from the country by March 2026.
Believed to be a “review report” of the outfit emerging from an internal meeting, it was found after a gunbattle in which Maoist commander Sudheer alias Sudhakar was shot dead on March 25, police said. Sudheer was responsible for training new recruits in weapons and guerrilla tactics.
“Earlier, teenagers were recruited into Maoist cultural wing, called Chetna Natya Manch, and later given combat training. If the review report is to be believed, then it indicates a dangerous trend of Maoists recruiting children as ‘child soldiers’. We don’t want a soldiers-vs-children and will run campaigns to stop this recruitment,” a senior officer of Bastar range said.
A young surrendered cadre in Bijapur told TOI that Maoists make it mandatory for villages to hand over a certain number of children and youngsters and threaten to evict families that don’t abide by the ‘rule’.
The letter says Maoists held a gram sabha in Marh region and recruited 130 cadres — 50 in the ages 18-22, 40 aged 14-17 and, alarmingly, 40 aged between nine and 11 years.
The report includes a detailed account of the current challenges faced by Maoist leadership, particularly the difficulty in recruiting new members. Maoist commanders expressed concern about the “growing reluctance” among young people to join their cause, and realise that future recruitment efforts might be even more challenging.
Maoists are worried that a significant portion of the cadres have either surrendered or been killed in encounters, leaving them short of experienced fighters. Without new recruits, the very existence of Naxalism in the region is at risk, the letter says.
Maoists have imposed stricter rules on new recruits — they are no longer allowed to visit their villages or families, fearing they may surrender or be arrested. If a recruit tries to leave, or is seen interacting with family or outsiders, this is to be immediately escalated to the committee commander, it says. Of 14 such cases, six were summoned for “counselling and review” by the leadership.
