Jaanu and Sainu Somji Hedo have two children and a parrot who shouts “Mummy-Papa” at regular intervals. The family of five lives in a three-room house in Navjeevan Vasahat, a former Maoist settlement in Murkhala village of Gadchiroli, one of the last Maoist-affected districts. Maharashtra.
The temperature is 44 degrees Celsius, and a narrow stretch of unpaved road leads to the house whose whitewash has been fading due to sun and rain since 2019-20, the year the house was built.
Young Maoists Jaanu and Saenu fell in love and got married in 2008. He surrendered in 2015. Both are residents of the Bhamragarh area of the once dangerous Dandakaranya forest. He was part of the company that led some of the most violent attacks on police in the 2000s.
Saenu is among 50 men who have undergone surgery to reverse vasectomy in Gadchiroli since 2005. As a part of the Maoist movement, young men are traditionally required to undergo sterilization to avoid family members. When he started surrendering, Maharashtra Police started helping in arranging surgery for him. Till now, 13 out of these 50 men have become parents.
This year, a vasectomy reversal operation was carried out under Project Sanjeevani, a series of welfare schemes aimed at rehabilitation of surrendered Maoists. A camp was organized in Gadchiroli in search to reverse the sterilization of 14 surrendered Maoists. SEARCH, founded in 1986 by Dr Abhay and Dr Rani Bang, is a society for education, action and research in community health, which has done pioneering work in rural health care and research.
living a family life
The family is suffering from the heat. A small fan rotates at the top. The couple is sitting on plastic chairs and their son is jumping on the single bed-cum-sofa. They struggle to snatch the mobile phone from the hand of a 5 year old child. He makes up his mind to watch the reel on social media.
It is difficult to imagine that in 2009, he was part of the team that ambushed 16 police personnel in the forests of Hattigotha, an act that shocked the security establishment then and has been recorded in history as one of the worst attacks of the Maoist movement.
Jaanu leads the conversation. Whenever any question is asked, Sanu looks at him. When he answers, she slowly fills in the years, the dates. Both of them currently work in different departments in a factory of Lloyds Metals and Energy Limited. A bus comes every morning to take them to work. Gadchiroli Police has made this task easy.
Maoists who carried out sterilization in Gadchiroli retaliated. | Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
“When she had the surgery, we didn’t think much about it. If our commander said we shouldn’t have children, we followed the orders,” says Janu. Saenu was not informed about this before sterilization. He was taken for two days and brought back after surgery. The question of consent of Jaanu or Saenu does not arise. The flow of authority and order was strict. When both of them fell in love in their teens, it was the commander who used to talk to the families. And they had to follow the orders of Dalam as a part of the Maoist movement.
Saynu says, “Where will we keep the children in the forest? We were told that when you are part of the movement, you cannot have children. They are a liability on the movement.”
They speak Marathi strangely; Their language is what they call “Boli Bhasha” (spoken language). They are happy to provide English medium education to both their daughter and son.
Within the complex spread over 13.67 acres, 174 plots have been allotted by the government to the surrendered Maoists. Each is 1,356 square feet, which is enough for them to make their own home. Janu and Sainu Somji Hedo is one of the oldest houses. It was constructed under the Shabari Gharkul Scheme run by the Government of Maharashtra. This scheme provides assistance in building concrete houses for eligible people belonging to Scheduled Tribes.
an exercise in old life
Sushila and Ashok Hodi live in this colony, who surrendered in 2010. He says the last 16 years have been different. All the surrendered Maoists have been given skills training. Today, Ashok works as a driver and earns a salary of ₹12,000 per month.
He says, his first job as a mason did not earn him much. Sushila has left work to take care of her newborn baby and a daughter. In 2018, she lost her son within three days of delivery. The couple now have two daughters.
Ashok and Sushila Hodi with their daughters at home in Navjeevan Vasahat. | Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
“When I was in the movement, I was part of Chetna Natya Manch (the propaganda wing of the Maoist movement). We used to sing in various tribal settlements and entertain people. We joined the movement in 2004, and used to travel to different places,” Sushila says, her smile warm, eyes twinkling. She is a resident of Pengunda, a tribal village in Bhamragarh taluka.
Now he doesn’t remember any song. “It’s been so many years,” she says, adding that her simple two-room house, a basic structure without any paint, is a place full of happiness for her. She says, “Now we find it difficult to sustain ourselves on just one salary. The prices of everything are increasing. We have no savings left, as we use the salary for our daily needs and medical needs.”
Bhupathi alias Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu Dada, who surrendered along with 60 others last year, was a key central committee member of the CPI (Maoist). He says that till a few years ago, sterilization was done dogmatically. He did this as a young man and so did many others.
“In 1997, I started questioning why it was mandatory. We thought couples should have the freedom to choose. After June last year, we got some couples married. But we did not get vasectomy done for them. In recent years, I myself have been instrumental in getting these vasectomy reversed,” he says.
thought of going back
Neither Sushila and Ashok nor Jaanu and Saenu want to go back to their native village now. Actually, after surrendering, Janu and Saenu went to their native village for the first time this year.
Another couple who surrendered, Kishna Masa Dorpeti and Manda Kishna Dorpeti, say there is no work where they come from. Masa says, “What will we do there? There is no job, no income. Our relatives take care of the farming there. All our documents are from here. Our Aadhar card, ration card and bank account are all made here. Now we will not leave Gadchiroli.” They recall their violent past, recounting incidents of police ambushes.
Many of them are either illiterate or can barely read and write. After having a vasectomy reversal and having children, they now want the children to be well educated.
“There are good schools here. Our children study in English medium schools. What will we get in the village?” Masa says.
For Ramesh Rainu Katvo and Jyoti Ramesh Katvo, the real concern is the safety of their families at home. Ramesh says, “After we surrendered, they (Maoists) used to harass our families. Villagers and family members had urged us not to return. For their safety, we stayed away for so many years. However, last month, we went home to meet our ailing father. There is no fear now. Many Naxalites have surrendered.”
Those under the age of 35 who have surrendered and had a vasectomy reversed in the last few months feel differently. Right now many people are under police surveillance. Some had bounties on their heads.
“After reading Sonu Dada’s letter, we were convinced that we should lay down our arms. The options were to surrender or be killed,” says Ramu Karam of Mudavendi, Chhattisgarh. Before surrendering, Sonu Dada or Bhupathi had written a long letter to the workers explaining their position. Security agencies say that his surrender broke the back of Maoism in Maharashtra.
Karam further says, “We are young now, but who will take care of us when we grow old? With this in mind, I decided to undergo a reversal operation.”
Oyam Sanna and Shivakumar Tailam had also surrendered last year. All of them are currently under police surveillance, although the process of obtaining their documents has not been completed yet. “Once I get my Aadhaar card, I will go back to my village and farms,” says Telam.
state support
For the Gadchiroli police, these surgeries are a part of their multi-pronged approach to root out the Maoist movement. Anti-Maoist operations are conducted aggressively, but incentives for surrender are also given.
To keep all records, keep track of all surrenders and facilitate their rehabilitation, Gadchiroli Police has a special cell called Surrender Cell. According to sources, it holds the record of all 814 Maoists who surrendered since 2005 in Gadchiroli. SAIL has so far facilitated the making of Aadhaar cards of 356 surrendered Maoists. It connects former Maoists with vocational or skill training centers and helps them obtain bank accounts, voting cards, ration cards and other documents. When the surrenderees face any problem, they contact the cell. After surrendering, the Naxalites are under the surveillance of Gadchiroli Police for one year.
“In 2025 alone, 112 cadres surrendered to us, and many of them showed willingness to reverse their sterilisation. The Gadchiroli police made concerted efforts with the searches, so that they could live their lives like any other citizen of the country,” says Neelotpal, a senior IPS officer, who was the superintendent of police when these surgeries were conducted recently.
medical intervention
For the past five years, a team of doctors and anesthetists from Mumbai led by Dr. Nitin Mokal and Dr. Shrirang Purohit have been traveling to Gadchiroli every three months to conduct free surgery camps for the tribals of Gadchiroli.
In March, he also underwent surgery to reverse a vasectomy. “We are going to explore plastic surgery as a team. We perform vasectomy reversal and cleft palate surgery; we perform operations to correct secondary deformities after burns. Vasectomy reversal involves a microplastic surgery, which is not complicated but skill-based. The procedure takes 2-3 hours,” says Dr. Mokal. The entire healing process takes about three months.
He says that after surgery there is 100 percent chance of reproduction. Teams fly under tight schedules over the weekend, often performing back-to-back surgeries hours before takeoff. Dr. Mokal says, “It is a pleasure to provide treatment to people at the grassroots level. SEARCH provides extraordinary facilities. There is great satisfaction in this work, which helps people live better lives.”
