Maoist couples prefer no child norm

Abujhmarh, Chhattisgarh, Apr 11: 'Double income, no kids' may be the new way of life among some urban families but the Naxal guerrilla couples prefer not to have children because of different reasons.

''Nearly 99 per cent of the members of the Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) of the CPI(Maoist) and many others associated with the naxal movement have opted against having children'', top naxalite leader Kosa told UNI at a hideout in the Daula forest close to Abujhmarh region of Bastar.

Kosa, who is the Central Committee member of CPI(Maoist) and the Secretary of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, had met his life partner Radhakka, the first woman naxal commander of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, in the early '80s.

''It was our conscious decision as it was very difficult to have children and fight a guerrilla warfare'', the 48-year-old rebel leader said, adding that ''immediately after our marriage in 1984 I had undergone vasectomy''.

Pointing out that majority of the couples involved in the movement have resolved not to have children, he said unlike the general trend, Maoist cadres did not force their women to undergo sterilisation operation but they themselves opt for tubectomy.

Kosa's close aide Sanjeev, a divisional committee member of the CPI(Maoist), however, said a few couples had children but they had left them with their grandparents or other family members, after nursing the child for one year, to join the active movement.

Anyone who has worked for the party for more than three years is allowed to get married, provided the boy and the girl attained the marriageable age of 21 years and 18 years respectively. The marriage proposal is put before the party's respective area committee for approval.

To a question, top naxalite leader Kosa claimed that CPI (Maoist) was a party which ensured 'equal rights' for women in the organisation.

'' Nearly 50 per cent of our active members in Dandakaranya region are women'', he said, adding that women also get important positions in the organisation.

UNI