FROM KALASHNIKOVS TO KHADI

The government has offered a surrender package with skilltraining for women militants, but it is a long road to recovery

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

Sharmili Kemprai can kill for food. One night at the rehabilitation camp at the Khadi Gram Udyog Vidyalaya in Assam’s Tamulpur district, she and her two dozen friends—surrendered militants—were served vegetarian food. Sharmili, 23, caught hold of the cook. “If you serve me vegetarian food one more time, I will kill you right here,’’ thundered the petite and strong girl who has been trained to wield AK-47 and M16 assault rifles.

Her younger brother and parents live in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Dima Hasao district, formerly North Cachar Hills. The hill district has been a hotbed of insurgency. Traders of blood like Etika Diphusa, leader of the Dimasa National Liberation Army, a relatively new militant group, had been using misguided youth to keep the pot boiling in the northeast.

Sharmili fit the bill perfectly. A class seven dropout, she was fiery and adventurous. She has no idea what she was fighting for; she was simply angry. She is among the hundreds of women militants who were being used by various small outfits like the DNLA, the People’s Democratic Council of Karbi Longri, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the United Peoples Liberation Army to add to the headache of successive governments.