On May 29, 2003 the vernacular Telugu media reported from Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh, that left-wing extremists of the People’s War Group (PWG) had, on May 24, abducted a minor girl, Narsingojula Padma, aged 14 years, from Patha Rudraram village. It is another matter that the girl was about to be married a day later, in violation of the laws applicable in the country.

Children, both boys and girls, operate in the rebels' ranks. Earlier, too, there were reports of the PWG forcibly recruiting girls into its cadres. In Chhattisgarh, the PWG targeted both boys and girls in 2002; at that time, parents in the vicinity of Tanda and Bagh rivers had sent away their children to foil the PWG's attempts. Further, the PWG and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) trained boys and young women in the jungles in Palamu district, Jharkhand. Two years later, the security forces (SFs) had rescued a group of girls from the MCC in the same area. Soon thereafter, they were admitted to a local vocational training institute run by missionaries.

These young children, being at an impressionable age, are susceptible to indoctrination. A young lady, who joined the rebels’ ranks when she was 15 years old and quit the outfit a few years later, said she was inspired by the lyrics sung by a PWG squad that visited her village in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh. Conversation with the people in Naxalite-effected regions reveals the reasons for children joining the PWG. Some of them admire and ‘hero-worship’ the weapon-wielding cadre or commander of the squads that frequent their area. Young boys and girls from deprived sections of the society are awestruck that the gun-totting rebels can ‘order’ and ‘threaten’ their village headman or a rich landlord, sometimes an upper caste person who looks down upon and humiliates the poor and the downtrodden. Besides, the have rebels become a source of inspiration for physically exploited women. In some cases, as was reported from Bihar, joining the rebels was a way out of poverty and starvation.

Young persons initially develop intimacy with the group and gradually turn sympathizers and informers. Some of them eventually join the rebels’ ranks. A family member, relative or someone known to the family serving in the rebels' ranks could act as a facilitator.

In fact, the PWG maintained its own children's corps, known as Bala Sangham for some years. At one point, there were an estimated 800 children in the ranks of the PWG. These children were utilized for intelligence gathering, carrying food and arms and serving extortion notes. The Amnesty International noted in a report entitled "Children in South Asia: Securing their rights" that the PWG had recruited children between the ages of eight and 15 "believing that they [the PWG] could train children more effectively than women to resist police interrogation." Available reports now indicate that the Bala Sangham has been disbanded.

The PWG's cadre strength is rapidly declining because of frequent surrenders by cadres and high attrition in SF operations. Therefore, there have been frantic attempts by the PWG leadership to recruit cadres for some time. This is a reason for the PWG targeting children. In fact, Nambala Kesava Rao, PWG Central Committee member and Central Military Commission (CMC) lynchpin, said in late December 2002 that the rebels hope to recruit 3,000 cadres by May 2003 and train them. The extent or success of this plan is not known yet.

It is not uncommon for the PWG to eye inmates of welfare hostels run by the Government for recruiting child cadres. In some instances, children moved around in the jungles with PWG squads for some weeks or months, but tired of the rigours of an underground life returned to their respective boarding houses. They were lucky to be accepted again and have been able to pursue their studies. Though exact statistics are hard to obtain, some of them continue to remain with the guerrillas, while some others join each year. Official sources, however, indicate that their numbers are just a handful and, therefore, not a cause for concern.

Nevertheless, to prevent children from associating with left-wing extremists, security force officials periodically visit the hostels and 'counsel' the students about the difficulties that lay ahead if they join Naxalite groups. Children who understand the futility of joining the rebels continue to pursue their avocation, while those who get carried away by the Naxalites leave their studies and enter the jungles to fight alongside their elder colleagues.