Naxalism is a social, economic and developmental issue manifesting as a violent internal security threat.…

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Naxalism is a social, economic and developmental issue manifesting as a violent internal security threat. In this context, discuss the emerging issues and suggest a multilayered strategy to tackle the menace of Naxalism.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Naxalism has shrunk but now survives as a concentrated, IED-reliant and finance-fed insurgency feeding on Adivasi grievances, so it needs a strategy layering security, development, rights and psychological outreach. Affected districts fell from 126 to 11 by 2025, with Chhattisgarh accounting for 72% of LWE incidents in 2024.

**Introduction**

Naxalism, born at Naxalbari in 1967, grows from tribal dispossession and a weak state but surfaces as armed insurgency. Affected districts fell from 126 to 11 by 2025 (PIB, 2025), yet the threat has changed shape rather than vanished.

**Emerging Issues in the Naxal Challenge**

1. **Concentrated hard core**: Chhattisgarh accounted for 72% of LWE incidents and 81% of deaths in 2024 (MHA Annual Report 2024-25).
2. **IED-centric tactics**: Ambushes and buried IEDs, as at Tekalguda (2021, 22 killed) and Bijapur (January 2025), replace frontal attacks.
3. **Funding and rights**: Levies on mining and contractors fund cadres, while weak PESA and FRA enforcement and the legacy of Salwa Judum, disbanded in Nandini Sundar (2011), keep grievances alive.

SKETCH: flow-cycle | Cycle of Naxal Violence
- Development deficit
- Tribal alienation
- Maoist recruitment
- Attacks on state
- Projects stall

**A Multilayered Strategy to Tackle Naxalism**

1. **Security layer**: The SAMADHAN doctrine (2017) and local units such as the District Reserve Guard and Gadchiroli's C-60 fill the security vacuum.
2. **Development layer**: Roads, mobile towers and Eklavya schools take the state into former liberated zones.
3. **Rights layer**: Gram sabha consent, upheld in the Niyamgiri case (2013), lets Adivasis own development.
4. **Psychological layer**: Surrender packages and Chhattisgarh's Niyad Nellanar scheme (2024) draw people away from the gun.

**Way Forward**

1. **Hold and build**: Turn camps into service hubs so cleared areas do not slide back.
2. **Reintegrate cadres**: After Basavaraju's killing in May 2025, give surrendered cadres skills and livelihoods.

**Conclusion**

Treating Naxalism as a security, development and rights problem at once is working. Inclusive growth reaching the last Adivasi hamlet will turn the cycle of violence into a cycle of peace.

Naxalism is a social, economic and developmental issue manifesting as a violent internal security threat. In this context, discuss the emerging issues and suggest a multilayered strategy to tackle the menace of Naxalism.

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