Seven former Maoists clear SSC exams, three with first class

Seven former Maoists who laid down arms in Chhattisgarh last October have cleared their Class 10 examinations, and three of them secured first class. The seven were part of a batch of 210 who surrendered, and they wrote the exam in August through the Chhattisgarh Open School.

Among them is Geeta Narote, 35, who grew up in Gurekasa village in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. She was ten when Maoists killed her father, and she had to leave school in the sixth standard. Despite that, she was drawn to the movement by its claims of fighting patriarchy and forced marriages and of speaking for women's rights. She left home and eventually reached Abujhmaad in Chhattisgarh, and has not seen her home since.

In the jungle, she said, the Maoists encouraged study but had no schools or proper teachers. Medical books reached them through suppliers, and she read on a tablet she had since 2017. She was trained to treat bullet wounds, stitch injuries, give injections and administer medicines, and helped villagers who had no access to medical aid. A divisional committee member in the CPI (Maoist), she surrendered in Jagdalpur along with a group led by Takkalappalli Vasudeva Rao, alias Rupesh, known as the Maoists' bombmaker.

She received Rs 50,000 from the government and spent part of it on books. Most of her preparation was self-study, with some guidance from a person she called "Pathak sir". Now living in a rehabilitation centre in Jagdalpur, she wants to complete her HSC and become a nurse, fulfilling a wish her father had for her to become a teacher.

Arjun Oyam, 32, from Todka village in Bijapur district's Gangaloor area, also studied through difficult circumstances. Teachers stopped coming to his school as Maoism intensified, and during Salwa Judum his house was burnt and he lost his books. He joined the Maoists in 2010 and was sent to Abujhmaad, where he became an Area Committee Member. He studied at their political school and taught basic Maths, Hindi and Environment there for a year. He said he asked to be sent to a government school but was told he would be arrested, and he disagreed with the killing of Anganwadi workers and teachers.

After the surrender, the Bijapur Superintendent of Police and others encouraged him to study, and policemen helped him obtain the birth certificate and caste certificate needed to apply for the exam. A former Maoist, Chaitu dada, also urged him on, and he bought books with his surrender money. He studied at night while training during the day in fish-farming and electrical work, and friends in his village guided him on WhatsApp. He now wants to complete his studies and teach in his village, which he has not visited in over a decade.

Santosh Achla, better known as Sannu, 31, was also an Area Committee Member and a teacher in the Maoist party. His father, a suspected Maoist, died in judicial custody in 2023, and his mother died this June; he was allowed to attend her final rites. He had dropped out in the second standard and joined the Maoists in 2008, inspired by the Chetna Natya Manch cultural troupe. He said they were told the Raoghat mining project would displace their village in Gundur, Koyelibeda, in Kanker district. The Maoists taught him to read and write, and he became a teacher in 2023, instructing young cadres in basic Maths and Hindi. He read on a phone without a SIM card, using a memory card and pen drive for online books. He now wants to study further, start a business and farm his land.

The three former Maoists said they had carried firearms but never fired a bullet.