GUWAHATI, ASSAM
How To Delete The Insurgency Icon
The army’s Assam-based Red Horns Division claims that it has found a novel method of nipping insurgency in the bud. After imparting vocational training to over 200 unemployed boys, the army is now training girls from insurgency-ravaged districts like Nalbari and Kamrup so that they can be gainfully employed. This programme is meant to prevent a large section of the youth in the state from joining insurgency under sheer economic pressure. Says Maj Gen Gaganjit Singh: “If we give them this opportunity, there is no reason why they should join the militants.”
After a two-month-long training in computers, Internet operations, banking and running public call offices, 45 young women are now ready to earn their living. Take Mousumi Boro’s, Tutumoni Choudhury’s and Pushpanjali Deka’s example. Trained in computers and Internet operations, all three of them now jointly run a cyber cafe. The army provided them with the computer, a modem, an Internet connection and a scanner.