Vishnu Deo Sai Interview: How Bastar 2.0 Is Transforming Chhattisgarh Beyond Naxalism

Naxalism kept Bastar so far away from the mainstream that even transporting ration to some villages used to take up to five days. There were no roads, not even a path wide enough for a bicycle. People used to carry sacks of rice on their shoulders to their homes.

This was the Bastar that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai inherited when they came to power in December 2023. On August 24, 2024, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs set a target to make the country Naxal-free by March 31, 2026. This target has been achieved successfully.

But as the guns turned silent and violence ended, the government faced a bigger challenge: bringing Bastar into the mainstream economy. That’s when the government launched the roadmap of Bastar 2.0. “The biggest challenge before our government was to bring development to Bastar. Underdevelopment persisted for 40-50 years due to Naxalism. So, a lot of work has to happen and development has to reach the people,” says Sai. It is important to understand the living condition of tribals; most of them are from poor and marginalised communities, he says. “In some instances, their houses and living conditions were worse than cattle or goat sheds. Farming, including rice cultivation, was their main livelihood.”

From emphasising education to exploring other sources of income and involving the youth towards sports and culture, the government has introduced a multifold approach to bring Bastar into the mainstream.

The chief minister says that education is the key to development. “Scholars have said that if any region is to develop, education is essential. So, the first thing we’re doing is setting up schools. I want education and health schemes to reach every doorstep in the region,” he says.

Speaking about the transformation, Sai says that parallel to clearing the Naxalites, the government launched the ‘Niyad Nellanar’ (our good village) scheme in 2024. The objective of the scheme is to make sure that government schemes reach everyone living in the Naxal-affected districts, including Bijapur, Sukma, Kanker, Dantewada and Narayanpur.

“Through the Niyad Nellanar scheme, we have built roads, provided electricity, water and telecom connections, ration cards and opened schools and hospitals. It was due to these efforts that about 500 villages have been resettled and repopulated over the past two years. Common people also wanted Naxalism to end and that’s why we succeeded in winning this battle, he says.

Sai says that the belt has more than 100 types of forest produce, including mahua, custard apple and tamarind and the government wanted people to decide what they want to focus on. A team from the National Institute of Design has visited the region and they will submit a report based on what the local people actually want. “Nothing will be imposed on them,” he says.

In different areas, different kinds of income sources are being focused on. “In some places, people prefer goat farming while in others, fish farming is popular. Herbal plants are also another option,” says Sai.

In May, the ‘Shaheed Veer Gundadhur Seva Dera’ project was launched. Sai says these camps were established to protect tribal communities, farmers, women and children from Naxal violence.

The Union government has established security camps across the Bastar region to fight Naxals. Now, the government is working to convert 70 of the 200 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) camps across the Bastar region into Seva Dera. “These camps will be developed as models for regional development and will also facilitate online access to 370 government schemes,” he says. For instance, some of these Seva Deras will be used for the packaging of tamarind and organic paddy for enterprise work.

The government has also decided to convert 37 camps into police stations as more and more security camps will be vacated. Initially, 10 police stations will be set up in 2026-27. Sai says that the process to convert all camps will take another two years.

The Seva Deras, apart from delivering government schemes, will also act as dairy milk collection centres as after cultivation livestock is also a potential source of income for the tribals. “We are also promoting animal husbandry. Many farming families also keep livestock alongside with faming. So we’ve also started a scheme to give two cows to each family from June 2025. This is being done in partnership with the National Dairy Development Board, the same body behind Gujarat’s White Revolution and Amul. Essentially, we want to replicate the Amul model here, strengthening cooperatives, whether or not it succeeds is a separate matter, but the push is towards cooperative dairy development,” he says.

After gaining victory over Naxalism, Sai says, the government is involving the youth and focusing on development so that Naxalism never resurfaces. He says the tribal communities are inclined toward sports, so they have been running the ‘Bastar Olympics’ for the past two years. Another initiative is the ‘Bastar Pandum’ (festival). “It featured seven art forms in its first year and 12 art forms this year, covering local cuisine, singing, dance and lifestyle. That too has been appreciated by the youth,” says Sai.

He says the region is full of natural beauty, as he called the place “a heaven on earth”. “Come see our waterfalls, jungles, Dhurwa dance, bamboo rafting and the Bastar Dussehra. As for safety, there’s no danger of any kind here. You can go out even at midnight,” says Sai.

With several ongoing initiatives, the Sai government is aiming to develop Bastar as the “best tribal division” in India. The importance of the belt can also be understood by the fact that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the dream of a developed India by 2047 remains incomplete without a “developed Bastar”.

Apart from development, the government is also working to change the image of the state as well as Bastar. “There is a perception among people that the state is unsafe. We are working on changing this image. We want to emphasise that this is not the old Bastar or the old Chhattisgarh. It has changed now and it will improve further,” says Sai.

For the government, the end of insurgency is not the finish line. It is the beginning of a far more difficult task: ensuring that development reaches the last village and that Bastar’s identity is no longer defined by conflict.

Nivedita Singh is senior correspondent, Outlook

(This story appeared in Outlook magazine’s August 17 issue, 'Parliament on Street', which takes an incisive look at the student protests against recurring examination paper leaks, the zing of Gen-Z politics and the Jantar Mantar protest at Delhi which triggered a strong response all across India, sending out a clear reminder that while governments are formed in Parliament, democracies remain alive on the streets)