VISAKHAPATNAM: An idle mind is a devil's workshop, goes the adage. Can tribal youth, especially those who have completed their school and college education, sit idle? In the absence of proper guidance to take up suitable careers, these disillusioned youth unwittingly turn puppets in the hands of anti-social elements.

In a bid to prevent this, the district police have now arranged for their training in driving, hotel management and security services and provided jobs to them in the city under the Youth Employment Scheme. However, after working for a few months, many of the tribal youth went back to their villages without even informing their employers. Many of the tribals were unable to adjust to the urban life, and some of them were home sick. This defeated the very purpose of training them.

Training in self-employment

With their efforts to provide gainful employment in the city to the tribal youth not producing the desired results, the district police have now focussed their attention on providing self-employment opportunities to them in their villages.

They have made arrangements for the conduct of 45-day free training camps in tailoring, plumbing, carpentry and masonry. Kits were purchased and candidates finalised for the training programmes.

``There is a good demand for carpenters, masons and borewell mechanics in the agency areas. The demand for these services is being met by qualified persons from the plains and once the tribals are trained in these trades they can work in their villages. We will gift the kits to the trainees so that they could pursue their work straightaway,'' said the Superintendent of Police V.V. Srinivasa Rao.

Surrenders galore

Lack of education, poverty and problems at home are attracting tribal youth to extremism. In the last 12 months alone, 30 women Maoists surrendered to the district police. Many of them were in their teens when they were lured into the outfit. They had to give up all ideas of returning home as they were warned by the Maoists that they would be at the mercy of the police if they did so.

The surrendered girls revealed that they had no inkling of the revolutionary ideology, but had basically joined the outfit to run away from home to escape from the prospect of forced marriages and poverty.

On the other hand, young boys are lured into the outfit from tribal welfare hostels. Their parents who are illiterate do not have any idea of their sons getting attracted to extremism.

Absence of an atmosphere conducive to learning, lack of guidance and shortage of textbooks are some of the reasons for the high dropout rate among tribal students. They are also unaware of the various career options available to them after completion of their studies.

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