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News Topical, Digital Desk : The same hands that once held guns and gunpowder in the forests of Bastar are now serving cups of tea and coffee. When Fagni Usendi serves tea to customers with a smile, it's hard to believe these same hands once stood ready to fight alongside Maoist squads in the jungles.
Ten-year-old Fagni came into contact with the Maoist organization during the Salwa Judum movement in 2005. Fagni says that after studying at the ashram school in Orchha until the fifth grade, when she arrived in her village, Dunga, nestled in the remote forests of Abujhmad, the Maoists recruited her.
She was initially trained as a member of the "Doctor Team," administering medications and administering injections. Later, she was assigned to teach children at the Revolutionary Political School (RIPOS) in Boter village. There, she taught Maoist ideology and the history of the organization to approximately 50 children.
In 2016, she returned to the mainstream due to illness. After training at the Skill Development Training Center under the government's rehabilitation policy, she is now working at the Bastar Pandum Cafe. She is also working there with six other surrendered Maoists, including Padmi, Kamalu, and Sukalu.
Fagni says, "I never want to take up arms again, neither for the police nor for the Maoists." There are many stories of transformation in the area, from violence to self-reliance. Mangti, a resident of Kodliyar in Kondagaon district, joined the organization in 2015 at the age of 16 due to Maoist influence.
For the next 10 years, she worked for the Kutul Area Committee. In 2025, she returned to the mainstream with her husband, Santu, also known as Badru. Under the rehabilitation policy, she received training on a sewing machine. Today, she runs a small sewing shop in her home and earns seven to eight thousand rupees per month.
Similarly, after receiving training at the Madkam Aayta Rehabilitation Centre, a Maoist from the PLGA Battalion No. 1, the most dangerous fighting squad of the Maoist organisation, is today operating a boat at Tungal Dam, a tourist spot in Sukma.
Due to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's target of ending Maoist violence by March 2026, increasing pressure from security forces and rehabilitation policy, many Maoists are now returning to the mainstream in search of employment and respect.
Under the government rehabilitation policy, they are being linked with financial assistance, skill training and employment.
Changing picture in Bastar
- 2,700 Maoists have given up arms and returned to the mainstream in the last two years.
- 789 surrendered Maoists were trained in electrician, plumbing, tailoring and driving.
- 589 surrendered Maoists are undergoing training in skill development centres
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