The Government of India recently stated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be eliminated by 2026. What do you understand by LWE and how are the people affected by it? What measures have been taken by the government to eliminate LWE?
Approach · directive: “what / how”
What it asks · Define LWE, show its human and developmental cost, and review the security-plus-development strategy the government has used to end it.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Explain what LWE is and how people are affected by it
- Explain the measures taken by the government to eliminate LWE — security, development and rights
Open with · Left Wing Extremism is the Maoist armed movement, traced to the 1967 Naxalbari uprising, that seeks to overthrow the State by force, feeding on grievances over land, forests and exclusion.
Cover
- Meaning: CPI (Maoist)-led insurgency concentrated in forested tribal belts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and Telangana — the ‘Red Corridor’.
- Effect on people: killings of civilians branded ‘informers’, IEDs, extortion; destruction of schools, roads and mobile towers; displacement.
- Development deficit: welfare, health and education blocked; tribal communities caught between insurgents and security forces.
- Security measures: National Policy and Action Plan (2015), SAMADHAN doctrine, CAPF and CoBRA deployment, DRG, fortified police stations, technology-led operations.
- Development measures: Special Central Assistance, roads and mobile towers in affected areas, Eklavya schools, bank branches, skill centres.
- Trust and rights: Forest Rights Act, PESA, surrender-cum-rehabilitation policies, choking of funding by investigating agencies.
- Outcome: affected districts fell steadily, and by August 2026 the government reported no district as LWE-affected; the task now is consolidation.
Close with · The insurgency’s retreat must be followed by governance that fills the vacuum — land and forest rights, jobs, and dignity for tribal communities.
Add value (verified)
- A PIB backgrounder of 1 August 2026 records that no district in the country remains LWE-affected. PIB Backgrounder — Naxal-Free India: Integrated Strategies Defeated Left-Wing Extremism (1 August 2026) ↗“India has achieved the historic milestone of becoming effectively free from Left Wing Extremism (LWE), with no district in the country remaining LWE-affected.”
- The same PIB backgrounder records that the Naxal-free target of 31 March 2026 was set on 24 August 2024 and met on schedule, with LWE-affected districts down from 126 in 2014 to zero by March–April 2026. PIB Backgrounder — Naxal-Free India: Integrated Strategies Defeated Left-Wing Extremism (1 August 2026) ↗“the Government of India set a target to make the country Naxal-free by 31 March 2026. The target was achieved on schedule through intensified security operations, stronger coordination, infrastructure expansion, and accelerated development outreach.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2025, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 222 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Left Wing Extremism is the Maoist armed movement, traced to the 1967 Naxalbari uprising, that seeks to overthrow the State by force while feeding on grievances over land, forests and exclusion.
What LWE is and how it hurts people
- The CPI (Maoist)-led insurgency concentrated in the forested tribal belts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and Telangana — the 'Red Corridor'.
- Violence: killings of villagers branded 'informers', IED blasts, extortion and the destruction of schools, roads and mobile towers; violence peaked in 2010 with 1,936 incidents.
- Development deficit: welfare, health and education blocked, displacement, and tribal communities caught between insurgents and security forces.
Measures to eliminate it
- Security: the National Policy and Action Plan (2015), the SAMADHAN doctrine, CAPF and CoBRA deployment, District Reserve Guards, fortified police stations and technology-led operations.
- Development: Special Central Assistance, roads and mobile towers in affected districts, Eklavya schools, bank branches and skill centres.
- Rights and trust: the Forest Rights Act, PESA, surrender-cum-rehabilitation policies and the choking of funding by investigating agencies.
- Outcome: affected districts fell from 126 in 2014 towards the target, set in August 2024, of a Naxal-free India by 31 March 2026 (since then, the government has reported no district as LWE-affected).
The insurgency's retreat must be followed by governance that fills the vacuum — land and forest rights, jobs and dignity for tribal communities.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.