Fighting Fire with Fire: Tribal Youth Inducted into Kerala Police to Resist Left Wing Extremists

Today, the police force gets ready to welcome new members into its fold. Now, that is not a unique incident, but this is.

For the first time in its history, the Kerala state police will formally induct 72 tribal community members, including women, into the force on Monday. The move is part of the strategy formulated in the wake of left-wing extremists (LWE) trying to gain a foothold over the tribal population in the state.

The proposal that was cleared in 2015, was originally limited to Wayanad district, Attappadi block in Palakkad and Nilambur block in Malappuram, where the tribal population is comparatively dense as well as where the LWE presence has been reported frequently. Later, Kalikavu and Areekode blocks in Malappuram also were included. They were selected in a special recruitment drive conducted by the state public service commission.

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Backward tribal communities such as Paniyan, Adiyan, and Kattunaykar were given special emphasis in the drive. “The aim of the drive was to take a countermeasure to the LWE threat as they are very accustomed to the land and geography of the jungle areas. This is also part of integrating the tribal community members with the mainstream society as the tribal groups should not feel marginalized,” state police chief Loknath Behera said.

The modalities and qualifying criteria for recruiting the tribal community members were prepared by a committee headed by an additional chief secretary (home and vigilance) and also consisting of principal secretary (SC/ST development), principal secretary (taxes) and secretary of personnel and administrative reforms department. The government even decided to waive off the mandatory surety of Rs 25,000 and two government employees, by considering the societal and financial backwardness of the recruited members.

They will be sent to Kerala Police Academy in Thrissur, where they will undergo nine-month training programme tailormade for them. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will hand over appointment letters to the new recruits at an event to be held on Monday.