The Koyas are a tribe inhabiting the hills in the north of the Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh and are also found in Malkangiri District. They have a tradition of about two hundred years old and believed to have been driven from the plateaus

Koyas, the Naxal sympathisers:


It is a fact that some of the Koyas are either supporters or sympathisers of left wing extremists and the reasons are manifold. Koyas are even today far away from modern civilization. Various factors like low literacy, lack of access to resources, under development agriculture, geographical isolation and lack of land reforms are the reasons for the socio-economic backwardness of the Koya people who are said to be supporters of the Naxals. A low literacy rate of less than 10 per cent gives them no understanding of what the government machinery is. Lack of infrastructural development like road communication, electricity, health facilities, education and drinking water has kept them away from the mainstream in Malkangiri District of Orissa. Intellectuals say that extreme low literacy rate among the Koya people together with other problems are the major hurdles in joining the mainstream in Malkangiri. While many believe that as the Koyas speak and understand Telgu well, and the Telgu speaking Naxals belonging to A.P easily succeed in pursuing them about their ideology and movement.

Development a key factor to end Naxal menace:


The Koyas inhabiting the interior, inaccessible and remote pockets of the district are deprived of basic facilities like education, road communication, health facility, drinking water and electricity, said Malkangiri MLA Nimai Charan Sarkar. The government should look into all these problems to bring an end to the left wing movement. Empasising on the need for educating the Koya people in their own dialect, he opined that if the Koya people become literate and the socio-economic factors will be redressed, the Koyas would have no option but to join the mainstream. Stressing on land reform-the root cause of the left wing movement, Sarkar said the government should look into the matter. All round development of the Koya people holds the key to end the Naxal menace, Sarkar asserted.


Koyas are peace loving:


It is the low literacy rate as a result of which the Koya people do not understand what the government machinery is, said Malkangiri former-Zilla Parishad President Nanda Kumar Kartami. A man from the Koya community, Kartami said the Koyas are quite peace loving. Stressing on education and more developmental works in the Koya dominated villagers, he said with the education holds the key to the all round development of the Koya people.


Without the socio-economic improvement of the Koya peoples, their all round development would not be possible. Literacy which holds the key to success of all government sponsored developmental programmes should be promoted among the Koya community before the situation goes out of hand given that they support the Naxalites. To sum up, sincere efforts should be made to bring these gullible tribes to the mainstream by ensuring their socio-economic development. If we deal simultaneously on the political, socio-economic, security, development and management fronts in a holistic and coordinated manner, it will definitely yield positive results.