ITBP turns ‘judo’ trainer for kids in Maoist bastion

By Rajnish Singh

New Delhi, March 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) Above the line of duty, the 41st Battalion troopers of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have turned part-time "judo" trainers for school children in the Maoist-hit Chhattisgarh, an approach to bring back locals to the mainstream through such civic initiatives.

The ITBP initiative, which began in 2016, has not only helped these children in getting various medals on national level tournaments and competitions, but has also brought about changes in their families' way of thinking which was inclined towards Maoism.

The self-defence form of martial art has changed the mindset of many tribals residing in Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon district, a hard-core Maoist belt around 180 km from state capital Raipur.

Kondagaon, which was separated from Bastar district on January 24, 2012, is mostly renowned for its bell metal craft and other tribal art forms.

The school children have won 112 medals so far after being trained by the ITBP -- a 90,000-strong force which is mandated to guard 3,488 km India-China border and provide security in the Maoist affected areas.

Two ITBP personnel, Head Constable Jai Prakash and Constable Zahir Hassan, of the 41st Battalion have been training some 200 local boys and girls in four batches daily for about six hours.

The initiative began in 2016 when the 41st Battalion was deployed for the first time in the region.

The two ITBP officers have since been grooming and training the school children in the modern Japanese martial art, which has since evolved into a combat and Olympic sport.

Of the 200 trained children, the group includes children and youth aged between five years to 25 years.

Of the 112 state and national level medals, the children won 15 (four gold, three silver and eight bronze) in 2017; 39 (15 gold, 15 silver and nine bronze) in 2018; and 58 (17 gold, 23 silver and 18 bronze) in 2019.

Among these medals, the children won three national level medals -- one bronze in 2018 and two (one gold and one bronze) in 2019.

The ITBP trained 161 school children have participated in various national level competitions till now.

Yogesh Sori had won a bronze medal in 2018 at under-14 national Judo in 35 kg U-14 weight category.

Anil Kumar had won a Bronze medal in 40 kg category in Judo national in Imphal in 2019, while Shivani had won Gold in U-14 category in 2019 in a national competition.

Head Constable Prakash told IANS that due to judo training, the children have learnt self-defence and are now more confident.

Constable Hassan started the training under the guidance of the Commandant Surinder Khatri in October 2016 as a free of cost training facility with the basic available resources in a room of a pre-matric boys hostel building with only 15 to 16 children.

"We started training these school children with 15. Now there is 200 children that include 125 girls. We train them from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. in the morning and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the evening," Constable Hasan told IANS.

"We started selecting these children on schools' level and now several children are coming on their own. Earlier, they were hesitant, but their behaviour has changed. The family members of these children and other locals have changed their attitude towards the force and their confidence has been increasing day-by-day. They were earlier enclined towards Maoism."

Mentioning that "soch badal rahi hai" (thinking is changing), Head Constable Prakash told IANS: "We call the parents of these children. They are now feeling that the Central government wants their welfare. The behaviour of the locals in Kondagaon district have completely changed in the last four years."

The ITBP has been in the forefront of Maoist affected Kondagaon district. The force mingles with the locals under civic action schemes besides ensuring them security from Maoist activities.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)

Source: IANS