India's Forgotten Malala: Sanjeeta Kumari
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By Priya S
This is a heart-wrenching story of a misguided soul, lost love and broken dreams yet a story of realisation, courage and self-evolvement against all odds.
It is a known fact that the Maoist lure the innocent tribal kids into revolt against the government not by promising fortune or a bright career but by singing jingles, entertaining them, promising them better food and easy life!
Sanjeeta kumari, fondly called Guddi, the protagonist of our story, was one of those unfortunate kids who was lured into the insurgent Maoist front, the people' militia that is trained for arm struggle to overthrow the democratically elected government and establish 'the new democracy' as they call, the revolution based on Maoism!
Guddi was mere 11 years old when she walked deeper into the dark jungles all the way clapping, singing with Savita Didi, a Maoist recruiter, to her camp.
An 11-year-old tiny hands cooked and cleansed utensils for a year. She was then taken to the guerrilla camp in far deep jungles of Jharkhand; the camp where these Maoist-extremists were not just manipulating the young minds but molesting and sexually exploiting these little ones every day and night.
Here at the Maoist training camp, Guddi was trained to use weapons and physical strength. She became an expert at handling Insas Rifles, carbines and jungle warfare in no time. She was then mobilised into the Latehar jungles for the revolt.
Amidst this chaos, Guddi found her love; the young zonal officer who wanted to marry her. They had dreamt their future together like any other young couple probably somewhere under the blue sky like free birds, far away from the Maoist brutal world!
But alas! Her love, the Maoist zonal leader had already walked to his death. He was shot dead during counterinsurgency. And Guddi lost her only hope to guard herself against Maoist barbaric acts at the camp.
The heartbroken Guddi found solace in books.
Though the Maoist party members, strategists, their united front leaders and commissars are highly qualified, they don't let their army men study and sharpen their conscience. Guddi, being an ordinary cadre of Maoist armed force in the rural area, was denied access to the school and was forced to hold the gun against Indian Government and Army.
It was then she realised, she had enough of eight years of endurance and long-suffering. She decided to run away from the Maoist army camp to some place where she can follow her dream to study away from cruelty and violence. The love and safety of her family didn't let her surrender or return to them.
She was resolute to live alone and pursue her education. She went into hiding in Gumla, Jharkhand for studies. In spite of the looming threat, she lived all alone, unidentified for a couple of years, away from her family studying at a local school. She was a trained guerilla commander after all!
The Maoist army men were in constant lookout for her.
And the darkest night came slowly. She walked through the darkness without stumbling to see her parents and siblings. After years of waiting she was on her way home when she was abducted! ... abducted and killed by her own fellow cadres.
Her blood-stained body was found with a handwritten note saying "Guddi had to die because she did not mend her ways"
A young aspirant was savagely murdered.
This is the fate of the majority in our country's Naxal-affected area. The foreign-funded ingrown terrorists, their sympathisers, the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are crushing young Indian dreams and what are we doing? Turning around newspaper pages, surfing the TV channels by calling it fake propaganda or needless stress!