“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” - Global Coalition to Protect ...

I became an SPO last year in March [2006]. I became an SPO even
before my brother to earn money for my family. After we moved to the
camp we had no income because we did not have any work. So I
thought working as an SPO would give us some money. We used to
have fields in [village name withheld] near [name withheld]. But now
we do not have any fields. A few of my friends and I discussed
becoming an SPO and we all applied together. I studied with them in
school. We all studied till the eighth standard and then stopped
studying after we came to the camp. I wanted to study but could not
continue because I have to help with household work … we needed
the money badly. 402
Lack of vocational training and other activities for youth also appears to be a
motivation to sign up for SPO posts. SPO Mandavi Mohan, appointed at age 17,
reasoned: “Judum started, what could I do? I couldn’t sit around idly. So I became an
SPO.” 403
In other cases, SPOs, many of whom were underage when they joined, said that they
signed up to avenge Naxalite killings. As one SPO explained,
I became an SPO to take revenge. My brother was an SPO and he was
killed by Naxalites. My brother died in February 2006 when he was
coming back from Dornapal after a [Salwa Judum] rally. 404
At the time of recruitment, most SPOs are given no information regarding the nature
of SPOs’ duties or possible hazards:
402 Human Rights Watch interview with Irram Seethamma (pseudonym), SPO, other details withheld.
403 Human Rights Watch interview with Mandavi Mohan (pseudonym), SPO, other details withheld.
404 Human Rights Watch interviews with Telam Suresh (pseudonym), SPO, other details withheld; teenage boy (who chose to
remain anonymous), IDP from Basaguda, village K2, Khammam district, December 2, 2007; Dasru Mangesh (pseudonym), SPO,
other details withheld.
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