With over 2,000 Maoist cadres surrendering recently, a strategic shift from insurgency to mainstream development is proposed. Former rebels can leverage their local influence to supplement government welfare by managing education, health, and infrastructure projects. By utilising medical teams, acting as teachers, and overseeing local timber and construction contracts, surrendered leaders can foster community "ownership" and trust. Funding should be diverted from Corporate Social Responsibility and District Mineral Funds directly to local committees in affected states. This transition aims to build an equitable India through democratic social change.
Four Central Committee Members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Maoists in short, and over 2,000 cadres and leaders of various levels in the Maoist hierarchy had surrendered in 2025. Among them, there are at least 11 State Committee Members, 22 District/Division Committee Members, squad commanders and several armed cadre. In 2026, at least 160 have surrendered; this trend is expected to continue. Besides, it is estimated that the Maoists have a significantly large sympathiser base–– about two lakh.
The surrendered Maoist leaders have clearly indicated that they are now willing to work among the people. While they might form a political party after joining the democratic mainstream, it is suggested that they should have a development agenda, too, as a dividend of peace. The government has initiated various welfare programmes. The Maoists can supplement those efforts. They can easily ‘mobilise’ the people in their former ‘struggle areas’. People want development and they can tell the people what they are exactly intending to do. ‘Minus the weapon’ everything they do is ‘legitimate’. The beneficiaries would be both surrendered Maoists as well as the local people. All that is needed here is their perseverance and changed approach. They can seek social change through ballot not bullet.
Ownership
The point then is ‘ownership’. When the surrendered Maoists do this by being physically involved, there is ownership. Every beneficiary would know who is imparting them skills for development. This would build support, stakes, trust and an abiding relationship with the people whose lot they would seek to improve. This would also contribute to their political agenda. Besides, when people are made ‘partners’, they would ensure both ‘quality and safety’ of the development process they would engender.
Skill Development
To begin with the Maoists should start their own low cost skill development and education project. Those who have surrendered need vocational training to be gainfully employed. So do many people in the semi-urban, rural and forest areas bordering rural areas. Nobody is perfect in the beginning; if they were, they would not require any training.
Locating trainers is not difficult; perhaps, some could be found among the Maoists themselves. They might start training in carpentry, making low cost eco-friendly bamboo home and kitchen needs, handicrafts and packaging local produce, to name a few. The next step is finding markets. A small outlet could address this. Thereafter, people can be imparted skills for short duration in various trades –– masonry, electrical and mechanical. Instructors from the nearby ‘polytechnic colleges’ need to be persuaded and given a suitable honorarium.
Health
There are no Public Health Centres (PHCs) in most tribal hamlets. The Maoists could form their own medical teams. In all their areas of operation they have their own ‘medical (doctors) team. They could be organised as health volunteers who could visit tribal hamlets and supply routine medicines for normal ailments. Medicines can be sourced from government PHCs. An important health hazard is cerebral malaria, treatment for which is required within 24 hours. A patient has to be moved to the nearest health centre immediately; else, the patient would die. Finding transport in such cases becomes a priority. The government should provide ‘bike-ambulances’.
Education
Many among the surrendered Maoists are literate. Incidentally, many of them learn to read and write while in the underground. They could function as ‘teachers’. The script they could adopt could be devnagri. The people can be taught to communicate in the written from in the local dialect. Later, over time, these people can be taught to communicate in Hindi; that can wait.
Roads and Other Infrastructure
Large tracts of land in tribal areas do not have road connectivity. The government already has an ongoing programme known as Rural Roads in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Areas. The Maoists could supplement this effort by encouraging the local populace to participate in these programmers. If people in two adjoining villages/hamlets join hands, they could provide connectivity between them and extend it to the next and last. Thus, the road connectivity programme can be hastened. Besides, they could lay internal roads within the village by themselves. At many places, a small culvert or a bridge is required. The locals should undertake the work to construct them. This should be besides the renamed Viksit Bharat— Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-G Ram G). Qualified civil engineering graduates and diploma holders should be employed in these projects. Employment could, thus, be generated. More the merrier!
Timber
It is suggested that the government should give the contracts for felling and selling timber to the locals as a collective –– moolvasis –– rather than to big contractors. The collective money thus earned would, in the immediate to long-term, serve as seed money that would be useful for development activities in those areas.
Financial Empowerment and Management
The people lack knowledge of financial management. They tend to get less than the due price for their products, or spend more than what they earn. Therefore, they need to be taught how to earn more and manage their earnings.
Finding Finances
The infrastructure and finances required are minimal. Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and the government could allow land to be used. The government could provide financial and material assistance to these small projects. Besides, there are Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) — to name a few: National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Sukma (Chhattisgarh), Bharat Aluminium Corporation in Damanjodi (Koraput, Odisha), Coal India Limited in Jharia Coal Fields (Jharkhand). Then, there is the District Mineral Fund (DMF). The objective DMF funds is to ‘spend at least 70 per cent in directly affected mining areas on high-priority sectors like health, education, water, and environment, with a focus on livelihood, skill development, and housing’. Besides, there are massive industries such as Tata Steel in Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Bhilai Steel Plant (Chhattisgarh).
Together, these constitute a lot. For instance, NMDC has Rs 240 cr earmarked for CSR activities. Rather than give the money to the State government to undertake development works, this should be disbursed directly to the local committees to implement development and welfare schemes.
Focus States
Presently, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha are among States that are severely affected by Maoist presence and have amongst them the maximum number of ‘thrust districts’ as part of the Union Government’s Special Central Assistance scheme. CSR and DMF money should be spent in these districts and employment generated in there, and not in others.
Conclusion
The surrendered Maoists should welcome the initiatives of the government and those of PSUs and private industry and take their support. Once the mindset changes everything will change and it is possible. For this, the ‘ideologically transformed’ Maoists should stop terming them anti-class. They should, thus, contribute to the larger project of an equitable, developed and prosperous India, much before we commemorate the 100th anniversary of our Independence.
Dr P. V. Ramana is a keen observer of the Naxalite Movement in India since 2004
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