Addressing the gender injustices that motivate many to join Maoist cadres can help the Indian state contain insurgency. Explain (200 Words)
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IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· The Communist Party of India (Maoist) released a list of 22 martyred women cadres to applaud the contribution of women to its cause.
· This renewed the conversation around female Maoists composing a substantial 60% of their total cadres and occupying almost all operational and tactical positions.
· The umbrella grievance of women in the movement is that of gender inequality, which worsens problems of sexual assault, police brutality, atrocities against Scheduled Caste/Tribe (SC/ST) communities, and economic inequality.
· This commitment manifests in all-women squads such as the Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (KAMS) leading extensive campaigns against forced marriage, abduction, outcasting menstruating women, bigamy, domestic violence, and police brutality.
· National Crime Records Bureau data shows that Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha alone registered 84,938 crimes against women in 2019.
· Women face sexual harassment from the state as well as insurgents, with no avenues to seek justice. Many find it nearly impossible to even register a first information report with the police.
· Marginalization from the rural economy renders women poorer than men of the same households, many women perceive Maoism as relief from poverty and unemployment.
· State schemes focus on hard-power security responses and not the welfare demands of the populace itself.
· The need of the hour is for the state to adequately address women’s ground realities in the region that push them toward radicalization.
