Internally Displaced People

Because of a deadly tug-of-war between state-backed vigilance Salwa judum and people’s army (better known as Maoist group), 50,000 indigenous tribal people in Chhattisgarh have been internally displaced since 2005. 

The armed movement by the Maoist group often called Naxalite is already taking four decades and 13 states in India. They claim to defend the rights of the poor, especially the landless, Dalits (“untouchables”), and tribal communities, but their repeated armed attacks across a growing geographical area led Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to describe the Naxalite movement as the “single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by India”.

The Indian central and Chhattisgarh state governments claim that Salwa Judum is a “voluntary and peaceful initiative by local people against Naxalites”, but there is too much evidence of direct state involvement in Salwa Judum and the government security forces and group’s own violent abuses over tribal communities. Village raids are designed to identify suspected Naxalite sympathizers and evacuate residents from villages believed to be providing support to Naxalites. They raided hundreds of villages, and threats, beatings, arbitrary arrests and detention, killings, pillage, and destruction of villages to force residents into supporting Salwa Judum are just a small list of creative horrors they have upon them. The Naxalites, on the other hand, are doing the same, under the veil of seeking equity and justice for the poor. 

Once villagers reach neighboring Andhra Pradesh in seek of refuge, many of them settle in the protected forest areas. The authorities claim these settlements as illegal, and keep destroying the hamlets of displaced people and forcibly evicting them from forestlands. The forest department officials repeat the destruction of their hamlets, beatings, and forced relocation. In some instances, displaced people, including women and children, were forced into trucks and transported to the state boundary. Instead of being protective and helping displaced tribal communities, the Andhra Pradesh state government is punishing them for seeking shelter in their state and is failing to provide basic assistance, including food, water, shelter, medical services, sanitation, and livelihood opportunities. Today, most of the displaced people in Andra Pradesh are eating tree roots. Children are starving and malnutrition is yet another worry they are forced to face.

66-year-old Chode Jogay escaped from Chhattisgarh one year back along with his daughter, son-in-law, and their children. It was a 2days and 2nights of hard walk for them to reach Andhra Pradesh. He recalls his life in Chhattisgarh: “Naxalites came and threatened us. They demanded food and asked us to help them with information about police movements. Then police came. They beat us and asked us for information. At the same time, Salwa judum forcibly relocated thousands of villagers to government run makeshift camps. We are caught between these people. There is no way out.”

Khammam District, Andhra Pradesh, (now Telangana) India, 2008.