Orphanages like this one house thousands of children, but are unable to provide residents with more than their most basic needs. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR , Dec 23 2012 (IPS)

Seventeen-year-old Afzal is an unusual orphan. Though his father died many years ago, his mother is still alive and living with Afzal’s grandparents and younger siblings in a house not far from the orphanage where the boy has spent most of his teenage years.

Once a month, on the day when his mother and younger brother come to pay him a visit in the Bait Ul Hilal orphange in Kashmir’s capital Srinagar, Afzal has, briefly, a reason to rejoice; but his excitement is short-lived. As soon as visiting hours are over, he is left on his own again, wishing he could return home with his family.

Like thousands of other children in Kashmir, Afzal has been orphaned not by the death of his parents but by crushing poverty.

“We are poor. My mother cannot afford my schooling and my upbringing,” he told IPS simply. This is Afzal’s fourth year at the orphanage in his hometown of Kupwara, which is home to thousands of children.

His mother, Farzana, added, “Afzal will starve if he lives with me. At least he gets proper food, clothes and an education in the orphanage.”

Farzana told IPS she no income, and runs her family using the money she receives from a local NGO.

Other children living in Bait ul Hilal have a similar story.

Not a day goes by when frail, dark-complexioned Nabeel does not wish he were back in his own house, with his mother and three siblings.

“My father was a militant and was killed five years ago. I have lived here ever since, as my family plunged into poverty,” Nabeel told IPS.

Nabeel’s mother says the only reason she sent her son away from home was so he would have a chance to get a proper education.

“I cannot pay for his school, books and other expenses. I earn only 55 dollars per month working as a domestic helper,” Arifa, Nabeel’s mother, told IPS.

In 1986, before the armed uprising cast its shadow over the Valley, Srinagar had a single orphanage. For the most part, kindly neighbours or relatives adopted orphaned children.

But the number of orphans has risen sharply after the insurgency claimed the lives of about 100,000 Kashmiris, mostly young men, many of them fathers.

The UK-based NGO Save the Children recently put the number of orphans in Kashmir at 214,000 , 37 percent of whom have been ‘orphaned’ – either directly, due to their parents’ death, or indirectly, through poverty – by the conflict.

The orphanages spread across the Kashmir Valley are full of children who still have one parent – mostly mothers – but have been driven by destitution into state-funded homes.

Zahoor Ahamd Tak, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Trust, a large local orphanage in the Valley, said that most children living in orphanages around Kashmir have mother and grandparents.

“But after losing their breadwinner, the family faces immense poverty to the extent that they are unable to bring up their children,” Tak told IPS.

If the government provided some financial support to such families, Tak added, they would not resort to sending their children away from home in a bid to keep them fed, educated and cared for.

Emotional needs neglected

But while families insist they have their children’s best interests at heart, experts point out that food, clothing and education do not come close to satisfying emotional and psychological sensitivities.

Ripped from their homes and placed in centres that do not have the resources to attend to more than the residents’ most basic needs, these ‘orphans’ are now developing mental disorders at an alarming rate, experts say.

A recent survey conducted in orphanages around the Valley by Dr. Mushtaq Margoob, a renowned psychologist, found that nearly 41 percent of the residents suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while a quarter of the children living in these homes showed signs of major depressive disorder.

The study also found a 7-13 percent incidence of seizures, attention deficiency hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and panic and conversion disorders.

While some homes have been able to address the emotional needs of the children, and create a ‘home away from home’, most orphanages end up provoking or exacerbating psychiatric disorders.

“Children placed in orphanages at a young age and for long periods risk developing serious psychopathologies later in life,” Margoob told IPS. “They have troubled interpersonal relations and face grave problems in parenting their own children.”

The specialist psychiatrist agrees that orphanages, which tend to neglect “intellectual and emotional needs”, are breeding grounds for mental health problems.

He strongly believes orphanages should provide a social environment that offers close and stable relationships between members.

Bashir Ahmad Dabla, a sociologist at the University of Kashmir, added his own concerns about the developmental impacts of this “unhealthy” trend.

“These children may have lost their fathers but sending them to orphanages (strips them of) the love they could receive from mothers, siblings and other family members,” Dabla told IPS.

The moment a child is admitted into an orphanage – and made to live on the sympathy of strangers, even though they have a family of their own – it changes their outlook on life and society, since they are viewed as outcasts and sometimes even a burden on society.

According to Zahoor Tak, 80 percent of orphans are unable to continue their education after the 10^th grade,which is when they are sent back to their homes.

(END)

Rashid was 12 years old when he picked up a gun and received armed training in Pakistan. He was caught by the Indian forces in 1992 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Five years later when he wished to return to a normal life, everyone turned away from him.

His parents refused to support him, and for a long time no girl agreed to marry Rashid, who is now 40. For relatives, he was an outcast who had spent two years in jail, and for state authorities a militant who could not be given a job.

“I have struggled for years after I was released from prison. Life of militants is hell after they give up guns,” Rashid told IPS.

Rashid served his sentence in several prisons, including Srinagar’s central jail. Prison was the most dreadful phase of his life, he said. Torture, beating and interrogation, together with lack of recreation, rehabilitation and even medical facilities turned life into a nightmare.

“Our food would contain husk and sandy stones. We had no recreational facilities like sports, counseling or anything that could keep us busy.” Inmates, he said, would spend time talking or offering prayers.

After release, things took a bad turn in another way, he said.

“There was no job, no financial security to lead a good life. The state government has been repeatedly promising jobs and compensation to ex-militants in Kashmir. But no results could be seen on the ground.”

It was not just unemployment that Rashid had to fight; social stigma fenced him from a good life.

“I couldn’t marry till I was almost 40. No one was ready to marry their daughter to an ex-militant, the tag makes you alien in our society.”

Rashid was forced into manual labour which is his means of earning now.

Rashid’s associate Iqbal was driven to unemployment due to his militant background, which even brought his marriage to breakup.

“I was not able to support my children and wife. My wife grew sick and threatened to divorce me. We reached the stage of separation,” said Iqbal, 45.

Iqbal was imprisoned in 1998 and released after eight years.

“Even after giving up guns, we are eyed with suspicion by people and authorities. Whenever any untoward incident takes place in our areas, we are called for questions first,” Iqbal told IPS.

Iqbal says normal life is impossible for ex-militants because neither the government nor people help in overcoming the trauma they face.

“There is no rehabilitation, no job prospect -we are left in the lurch.”

Forty-year-old Ibrahim was jailed for 15 years. After release he not only lost his family but his normal state of mind.

“He lives alone despite a wife and son, survives on medicines and fighting an insane mental state. There is no caretaker, no family, no money, no job for him,” said Masood, Ibrahim’s cousin.

Ibrahim developed many ailments in jail, he said. “But it was the death of his father and alienation from his brothers that drove Ibrahim to an insane mental state. The government never came to rehabilitate him. He is left to die.”

Experts point to the need for rehabilitation measures such as vocational training within prisons, counseling, education and recreation.

“The behaviour and inclination of the prisoner has to be assessed and accordingly he has to be rehabilitated to keep him away from crime. But such things are completely missing in our prisons,” Prof A.G.Madhosh, educationist and psychologist told IPS.

Madhosh, former head of faculty of education at the University of Kashmir, stressed the need for job avenues for former militants.

“We don’t have to push them towards wrong but pull them away from delinquency. Without proper rehabilitation they suffer emotionally, psychologically, financially and socially,” Madhosh told IPS.

Sociologists say former militants are treated like outcasts in society.

“Thousands of youth on both sides of Kashmir suffer as they are denounced by the government, relatives, family, friends – everyone. They are the worst sufferers of the conflict,” sociologist at the University of Kashmir, Prof Bashir Ahmad Dabla told IPS.

He dreamed of one day running on international athletic tracks and worked hard for seven long years to make this a reality.

Tanveer Hussain, one of Kashmir’s top athlete’s, ran a 100-kilometre “protest” marathon to bring attention to government apathy towards sports. Credit: Sana Altalf/IPS

But today, despite Tanveer Hussain becoming the top athlete in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, his dream is quickly vanishing in the face of government apathy towards sports.

“Every time I won a marathon, all I got was a pat on my shoulder and false promises. The government has never supported me even though I am (one of the) top athletes in the state,” Tanveer, a 12^th-grade student, told IPS.

Tanveer has won numerous long-distance races, the most recent being the 42-kilometre Jammu Marathon organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, in which he outran 17,000 athletes.

“The authorities don’t organise any sporting events; the only competitions are those hosted by local banks or the police. There are no avenues for me, or other players, to reach national or international levels,” Tanveer told IPS.

“As a top runner in the State, the government should send me to participate in nationals, which would bring pride to the Valley. But no one takes any interest.”

A few weeks ago, Tanveer even ran a 100-kilometre “protest” marathon, but his action failed to move authorities.

“I am awfully depressed, watching my dream die. I am unable to decide if I should continue with the sport or quit.”

Tanveer is certainly not alone in his predicament. Scores of other athletes around Kashmir are faced with a similar decision: to follow their passion to master a sport, or give it up in favour of more “realistic” prospects.

Eleven years of experience failed to fetch Riyaz Ahmad a professional career in cycling, forcing him to abandon the sport forever. He said a lack of infrastructure and inadequate funding kept him and other cyclists from achieving success.

“We do not have a proper sports policy in Kashmir, which is a major drawback. There is no professional training, and no one to organise participation in different tournaments,” he told IPS.

A dearth of coaches in the Valley is yet another deterrent, Riyaz added. Often, senior sportspeople are forced to train youngsters. “We don’t even have a proper athletics track,” he said.

Mushtaq Ahamd, who gave up cycling four years ago, asked bitterly, “How could we run after something that will give us no job or financial security? No one ever cared for our talents and hard work.”

Almost all sportspeople in Kashmir are facing tough times due to government negligence. Experienced athletes are quitting in droves and disinterest in sports is rampant among youth in the valley.

“Our children who want to make sports their career have no security. Sports is the last thing the government thinks of,” Nayeema (not her real name), an international-standard sportswoman hailing from the Valley, told IPS.

Authorities have little to no interest in the condition of facilities or the quality of athletes, and funding is scarce, she lamented.

The Jammu and Kashmir State Sports Council, an autonomous body responsible for providing funds to various sports associations and monitoring their work, is also tasked with organising tournaments, training players, upgrading infrastructure and providing all necessary assistance to sportspeople.

Forty-eight associations are affiliated with the Council, and thereby entitled to government funding. Other non-affiliated associations, which numbers in the hundreds, receive no state subsidies.

Through associations affiliated with the Council, each of Kashmir’s 22 districts is allocated just 10,000 rupees (about 180 dollars) for training junior, sub-junior and senior players of all sports.

“We have hundreds of players from each district. How can this meagre amount suffice to train and support all our budding players?” Nayeema asked.

“All players suffer here, in varying degrees,” Nayeema told IPS. “The rights of players are undermined. Kashmir could produce hundreds of world-class players if only the government took them seriously.”

Ironically, the chief minister of the state, Omar Abdullah, heads the State Sports Council.

But “even after repeatedly pressing on authorities to improve sports in Kashmir, nothing is done. Our valuable talent and hard work is wasted,” Rashid Ahmad Choudhary, Kashmir’s international fencer, told IPS.

Nayeema remarked that though the Sports Council disburses funds to associations, there is no monitoring on how this money is being used.

“Whatever funds are released should be properly utilised. But with the condition of sports deteriorating, one wonders where all the money goes,” she said.

According to the official sources, rampant corruption in virtually every aspect of civil and political life in Kashmir undoubtedly affects the sports arena as well.

Afzal, an administrative officer of the Sports Council, admitted that inadequate funds have a negative effect on sports in the Valley, adding that the government has been asked to increase funds.

(END)

Lawyers in Kashmir estimate that only three percent of criminal cases end in justice. Credit: Imran Ali/IPS

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Jun 5 2012 (IPS)

Four years after three middle-aged men were murdered in cold blood in central Kashmir, their case lies forgotten, collecting dust in the court’s record room, while culprits roam free. Meanwhile, a young woman named Afroza recently lost a two-year battle to get her rapist punished, when her neighbour gave false evidence in court, thus facilitating the acquittal of the accused.

Kashmir’s courts are bulging with unfinished cases, unsolved murders and unpunished injustices. Scores of criminals walk the streets, as cases of murder, rape, fraud, drug peddling, bribery and corruption either stagnate or result in favourable outcomes for the accused. Lawyers here estimate that only three percent of criminal cases end in justice.

Legal experts blame uncooperative and ‘hostile’ witnesses for the prevailing weakness of the criminal justice system in Kashmir.

Hostile witnesses are those involved in criminal cases who either fail to testify, backtrack on their original statements or give adverse testimony to the calling party during direct examination. False testimony and hostile witnesses play a major role in exonerating the accused.

Lawyers here say over 90 percent of those accused in criminal cases are acquitted due to hostile witnesses.

A court’s decision in criminal cases is largely based on a witness’s account of events, senior legal advocate Mushtaq Ahmad told IPS.

“If the witness is cooperative and speaks the truth without changing his stand, no one can deny justice,” he remarked.

But the increasing presence of hostile witnesses is becoming a major problem in the criminal justice system. Mushtaq added that, often, even judges are aware of who the culprit is, but a lack of concrete evidence and reliable witnesses forces the court to grant acquittals.

Advocate Sultan noted that the climate of fear in the Kashmir Valley, which has prevailed throughout decades of conflict, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and arrests, also discourages witnesses from coming forward to speak the truth.

Whenever a crime takes place, victims are expected to file a first information report, following which police are tasked with the responsibility of investigating the case, including recording the witness’s statement.

But Sultan said police often write statements based on their own interpretation of events and then force witnesses to sign. When police officers’ version of the story clashes with eyewitness testimony in court the case is dismissed.

To overcome this problem, which is known to have ruined many criminal cases, amendment 164 A was introduced to the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Act. It stated that witnesses’ statements in cases involving a sentence of seven or more years in jail must be recorded in the presence of the nearest magistrate; for offences involving less than seven-year punishments, statements are recorded by the police only.

Slow judicial processes and security issues also discourage witnesses from presenting honest testimony. In many cases it takes weeks, even years for witnesses to get their statements recorded or heard before the court.

Mohammad Amin, for instance, has been waiting for three years to get his statement on the death of his relative recorded.

“It is a case of abetment of suicide in which Amin is one of the key witnesses. But his statement has not been recorded,” legal advocate Ashraf told IPS.

He believes the courts’ hostile environment plays a role in discouraging witnesses from accurately reporting on crimes – most of the time witnesses are made to wait hours before the court hears their statements. No security is provided to those who testify on heinous crimes, meaning witnesses give evidence at great personal risk.

Legal experts also cite corruption as a major factor weakening criminal cases.

“Witnesses change their statements or go hostile for money,” Mushtaq confirmed.

“We have often found that criminal cases involving ministers or bureaucrats do not see justice because no one dares to give a statement against any influential person. If the state starts providing security to such witnesses, things would change for sure,” Sultan said.

Besides hostile witnesses, Kashmir’s faulty investigation process is known to have weakened the justice system.

“Investigation machinery (investigation officers and police) is growing more and more inefficient by the day, gradually becoming incapable of conducting proper criminal inquiries. Investigation teams do not follow rules and are not well-trained,” Sultan told IPS.

He called for a distinction between police officers’ role as upholders of law and order and specialists investigating criminal cases. “There should be a separate wing for investigating criminal cases, which should consist of trained talented staff.”

Senior lawyer M.A. Wani suggested carving out a proper judicial process, which guarantees security of witnesses and timely, speedy trials.

(END)

Recent research has found that over 90 percent of haemophilia patients across Kashmir are also affected by hepatitis due to the dearth of safe Anti- Haemophilic Factor (AHF) in the Valley.

Haemophiliac children receive treatment at Srinagar hospital. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

The long-term use of Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) as a substitute for AHF has put hundreds of haemophilia patients at high risk of contracting deadly infections, mainly hepatitis.

A survey conducted by members of the Haemophilia Society of Kashmir in 2011 found that out of 137 haemophilia patients registered at Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital, 115 were affected by hepatitis.

“I have been a part of the survey and found that over 90 percent of haemophilia patients in Kashmir are infected with hepatitis,” said Syed Majid, a member of the Haemophilia Society of Kashmir, adding, “There are many more haemophiliacs who are hepatitis-infected but are not ready to talk about it publicly.”

Thirty-year-old Majid, a student of political science at the University of Kashmir, is himself affected by hepatitis. It cost him a month of treatment and over half a million rupees (about 9,700 dollars) to get himself cured outside the state.

Haemophilia refers to a group of hereditary, genetic bleeding disorders that impair the body’s ability to control blood clotting or coagulation when a vessel is ruptured. Haemophiliacs are prone to excessive external bleeding as a result of even small wounds or cuts, as well as heavy internal bleeding.

The AHF injection surgically inserts the protein substance in blood plasma that is essential for the blood-clotting process, and is regarded as the safest mode of treatment.

FFP, on the other hand, is a frozen and preserved form of human blood also used to treat haemophilia, which experts say poses risks of infecting patients.

Javaid Rasool, a haematologist at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), said FFP involves the highest risk of transmitted hepatitis of all categories.

Rampant and untreated

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has 223 registered haemophiliacs, most of them children. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, the most common form of the disorder, haemophilia A, occurs in about one in every 5,000–10,000 male births.

Haemophilia B, on the other hand, is much more rare, occurring once in every 20,000–34,000 male births. Within the WHO parameters, the Valley is home to roughly 1200 males suffering from this disorder.

Until 2011, FFP was widely used by haemophiliacs in Kashmir, as a substitute for AHF, which was not available at government hospitals or pharmacies.

After the state High Court directed the government to ensure safe AHF to patients, treatment was readily available for six months – but only at the SMHS hospital, not at any other hospital in Srinagar or even at the district level.

Over the last month, haemophilia patients have stopped using even the small quantities of AHF available at the city hospital, alleging that the injections, procured through a new process, are unpurified and thus unsafe. Most patients are now back using FFP.

“AHF has to be purified. Initially the one that was being used here was of the best quality and purified. But now the hospital authorities have (linked up) with a company that does not sell purified AHF,” said Majid, adding that the unsafe injection poses the danger of all kinds of lethal infections.

Manzoor Ahmad, father of an 11-year-old haemophilia patient, is forced to order AHF for his son from New Delhi.

“For a few months, we had safe AHF available free of cost. But now, what is being sold is unpurified, which has high risks for patients,” said Manzoor.

“Luckily I can afford to buy AHF from outside the state. Most patients have to stick to FFP.”

Manzoor says even approaching the authorities about the issue yielded no results. “No one is ready to listen to us. The government is being insensitive to our grave (suffering),” he lamented.

Forty-three year-old Altaf Hussain Shah was infected by hepatitis after using FFP for years. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2005 but no amount of treatment has brought any improvement. Shah is an employee at the records department of SKIMS, the Valley’s leading medical institute, which only runs a consultation clinic for haemophiliacs.

“We have no facilities (and so) patients are forced to use FFP, as the AHF sold by the government is not safe,” he stressed.

Haemophiliacs have even staged protests against the non-availability of safe AHF but still the government has failed to take action.

Senior haematologist at SKIMS, Samoon Jeelani, told IPS that a good number of people continue using FFP, despite awareness that it is a risky treatment. He said more efforts should be made to improve health care for haemophilia patients.

An official at the SMHS hospital, however, declined to comment on the issue.

“I cannot talk on the issue. You will have to seek permission from higher officials, only then can I say something,” Ruby Reshi, associate professor and head of the department of pathology at the Government Medical College, told IPS.

By Sana Altaf and - -
SRINAGAR, Mar 13 2012 (IPS)

While the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association is hogging headlines over the alleged embezzlement of sports funds, Kashmiri youth are gearing up to write history in Kashmir’s cricket record.

Not a single major sports event has been hosted in Kashmir since the insurrection began in 1989 but street cricket continues to be a national pastime Credit: Dave Watts/CC-BY-2.0

The initiative is not a government undertaking but was kick-started by two Kashmiri youth who own a small private web development company here.

“I am not a cricket buff. But after watching day-night cricket matches in other states, I wanted the same in Kashmir,” said 25-year-old Amir Meraj Shah, who was moved to organise the tournament after consistently observing the pathetic state of cricket in Kashmir, despite the massive presence of cricket fanatics in the Valley.

Most everyone from young children to their grandparents are avid cricket followers; posters of cricket players fondly find prominent wall space in shops, on buses and in numerous public places. Street cricket is a widespread pastime, particularly during the frequent strikes or curfews.

The tournament is scheduled to be played in a North Kashmir cricket stadium some 25 kilometers from the capital Srinagar, in the same place that hosted the state’s first Twenty20 premier league last year, and will include four matches of 20 overs each. The first three will take place during the day and the final match will be played at night.

The tournament can accommodate 64 teams and already 25 teams from Jammu and Kashmir have registered.

Together, Shah and his friends are ironing out all the details and managing all the expenses of the tournament with no support from the Cricket Association or any other government organisation.

“We had asked the Cricket Association for dimensions of (flood)lighting but they denied knowing anything about it,” Shah told IPS. The organisers have secured permission from all the necessary authorities and security agencies for the tournament.

“We have done all the preparations on our own, with the help of friends.”

“Our electrical engineers are already on the job of setting up lights. The diesel generators and poles have been acquired and mounting will start in a day or two,” Shah said. The venue can hold 210 spectators under roof seating.

Meanwhile, two officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association have been accused of siphoning off 300 million rupees worth of sports funds into ‘shadow’ accounts running parallel to the official bank accounts of the association, which has been headed for the last 30 years by Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister and father of the current chief minister.

While saluting the young men’s initiative in driving the day-night Twenty20, officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council claim the organisers are not entitled to any government funds.

“The Cricket Association or other state sports agencies (can only fund) those organisers who are registered with (the government),” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a representative of the Sports Council.

The prospect of the event has thrilled the people of Kashmir who are eagerly anticipating Mar. 18.

“It is a wonderful initiative. We have never seen a cricket tournament in Kashmir. I will surely be a part of it,” said Mukeen Khan, a 12th grade student.

“The scam of the Cricket Association has clearly exposed their work. Now it is the youth who can change things,” he added.

Ruheela Habib, a cricket buff and post graduate student of political science, believes that the tournament will create history. She says that the people of Kashmir should support such ideas by all means.

“It is nice that youth are involved in reviving sports. But we all share the responsibility of appreciating their work and extending a helping hand too.”

Only two international cricket matches have so far been played in Kashmir. The first was between India and Clive Lloyd’s legendary West Indies in the autumn of 1983. In 1986, India and Australia played a match at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir cricket stadium. Day-night matches have never before been played in the conflict-ridden valley.

Sports activities took a major hit after the insurgency began in 1989, with no major sports event held or organised here in well over two decades. Indeed, the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council has been almost redundant for years. Absence of infrastructure, lack of required coaches and training for youth has marred sporting activities in the region.

Excerpt:

Suicide rates, particularly among teenagers, have soared in Kashmir since the insurrection began in 1989. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Mar 2 2012 (IPS)

On Feb. 6, a young girl committed suicide by swallowing poison at her home in Kashmir. A few weeks later a teenaged girl from Srinagar hung herself at her residence.

On Feb. 24, two girls from the Budgam district committed suicide by consuming poisonous substances. A few days later, on Feb. 28, a youth ended his life by jumping into the Jhelum River in the Sopore district of North Kashmir on the same day that a 40-year-old man killed himself.

Feb. 29 saw the death, by poison, of another teenaged girl in the same area.

In the month of February alone, over 10 suicide attempts were reported in the Valley, giving just a glimpse of the roughly 17,000 suicides that have been reported in the past 21 years, experts say.

Research on suicides conducted by B.A. Dabla, a sociologist at the University of Kashmir, indicates that an average of 227 suicides have been reported in 27 months in Kashmir, based on medical reports.

The study, which is yet to be made public, says that 62 percent of all suicide cases involve females. Youth in the age group of 17-26 are found most likely to take their own lives, though teenagers as young as 13 years old have also committed suicide over the last two decades.

Suicide rates in Kashmir were negligible before insurgency hit in 1989. The past 21 years of conflict have seen a sudden surge in suicides, with researchers at Kashmir’s sole Psychiatric Disease Hospital indicating an increase from 0.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 1989 to 20 deaths per 100,000 in 2007.

The National Crime Bureau Records (NCBR) of India states that Kashmir has a higher suicide rate than the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, since one person in the Valley commits suicide every day.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Kashmir’s premier medical institute, recorded 248 suicides in 2010.

In 2011, over 1000 suicides cases were registered with SKIMS and the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital of Srinagar.

However, experts believe these numbers are conservative estimates, since media reports and police and hospital records do not present the real scenario of just how rampant suicide has become in Kashmir.

“The actual rate is higher than what is being reported. Because of the social stigma (and shame attached to the act), people do not report suicide attempts or death,” psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob told IPS.

Particularly in rural areas, suicide cases go largely unreported.

“It is an unfortunate fact that the suicide rate is higher than what we know and (steadily) mounting,” Margoob said.

Along with the increase has come more “efficient” ways of committing suicide.

Earlier, Dabla said, people would threaten their families with suicide, without actually doing themselves any harm. They would jump out of first floor windows or slash their hands – adopting measures that, though harmful, still left them alive.

“But now, the most deadly substances are being used for suicides.”

In urban areas, hanging, jumping into rivers and consuming poison are some of the most common methods. In villages pesticides are often used. Women commonly set themselves ablaze during suicide attempts.

There are many reasons for this surging rate; besides conflict, the level of life-or-death desperation in the Valley has been linked to the drastic rise of psychiatric disorders, which currently affects roughly 800,000 people across Kashmir.

“Impulse control disorders, psychiatric disorders, materialist lifestyles, psycho-social and socio- economic problems are some of the major causes for the increase,” said Mushtaq.

Depression, panic disorder and anxiety are all linked to suicides as well.

Independent psychologist A.G. Madhosh categorises the causes of suicides in Kashmir into social, psychological and anticipatory.

“Social” causes are mostly linked to family pressure, marital status, career, strained relationships and the inability to compete at social levels.

“In urban areas, employment and education are compounding factors,” said Madhosh.

“When students commit suicide after appearing for an examination, it is an ‘anticipatory’ cause,” she explained.

Amongst teenagers, poor impulse control, examination stress, love affairs and parental pressures are found to be prominent reasons for suicides. Experts suggest adoption of a practical system of education, counseling and religious education for preventing suicides.

The epidemic has not only plagued the local population of Kashmir but has endangered hundreds of Indian paramilitary troops deployed in the Valley as well. A recent report issued by the Indian Defense Ministry found that 780 Indian paramilitary troops have committed suicide since 2005, mostly by shooting themselves.

The study shows that 38.56 percent of Indian forces are schizophrenic, 14.17 percent suffer from alcoholism and 9.8 per cent are struggling with depression.

Tremendous psychological stress, loneliness, short leaves and hostile conditions are stated to be major reasons for the rise in suicides amongst troops.

Excerpt:

On Feb. 6, a young girl committed suicide by swallowing poison at her home in Kashmir. A few weeks later a teenaged girl from Srinagar hung herself at her residence.

On Feb. 24, two girls from the Budgam district committed suicide by consuming poisonous substances. A few days later, on Feb. 28, a youth ended his life by jumping into the Jhelum River in the Sopore district of North Kashmir on the same day that a 40-year-old man killed himself.

Feb. 29 saw the death, by poison, of another teenaged girl in the same area.

In the month of February alone, over 10 suicide attempts were reported in the Valley, giving just a glimpse of the roughly 17,000 suicides that have been reported in the past 21 years, experts say.

Research on suicides conducted by B.A. Dabla, a sociologist at the University of Kashmir, indicates that an average of 227 suicides have been reported in 27 months in Kashmir, based on medical reports.

The study, which is yet to be made public, says that 62 percent of all suicide cases involve females. Youth in the age group of 17-26 are found most likely to take their own lives, though teenagers as young as 13 years old have also committed suicide over the last two decades.

Suicide rates in Kashmir were negligible before insurgency hit in 1989. The past 21 years of conflict have seen a sudden surge in suicides, with researchers at Kashmir’s sole Psychiatric Disease Hospital indicating an increase from 0.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 1989 to 20 deaths per 100,000 in 2007.

The National Crime Bureau Records (NCBR) of India states that Kashmir has a higher suicide rate than the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, since one person in the Valley commits suicide every day.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Kashmir’s premier medical institute, recorded 248 suicides in 2010.

In 2011, over 1000 suicides cases were registered with SKIMS and the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital of Srinagar.

However, experts believe these numbers are conservative estimates, since media reports and police and hospital records do not present the real scenario of just how rampant suicide has become in Kashmir.

“The actual rate is higher than what is being reported. Because of the social stigma (and shame attached to the act), people do not report suicide attempts or death,” psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob told IPS.

Particularly in rural areas, suicide cases go largely unreported.

“It is an unfortunate fact that the suicide rate is higher than what we know and (steadily) mounting,” Margoob said.

Along with the increase has come more “efficient” ways of committing suicide.

Earlier, Dabla said, people would threaten their families with suicide, without actually doing themselves any harm. They would jump out of first floor windows or slash their hands – adopting measures that, though harmful, still left them alive.

“But now, the most deadly substances are being used for suicides.”

In urban areas, hanging, jumping into rivers and consuming poison are some of the most common methods. In villages pesticides are often used. Women commonly set themselves ablaze during suicide attempts.

There are many reasons for this surging rate; besides conflict, the level of life-or-death desperation in the Valley has been linked to the drastic rise of psychiatric disorders, which currently affects roughly 800,000 people across Kashmir.

“Impulse control disorders, psychiatric disorders, materialist lifestyles, psycho-social and socio- economic problems are some of the major causes for the increase,” said Mushtaq.

Depression, panic disorder and anxiety are all linked to suicides as well.

Independent psychologist A.G. Madhosh categorises the causes of suicides in Kashmir into social, psychological and anticipatory.

“Social” causes are mostly linked to family pressure, marital status, career, strained relationships and the inability to compete at social levels.

“In urban areas, employment and education are compounding factors,” said Madhosh.

“When students commit suicide after appearing for an examination, it is an ‘anticipatory’ cause,” she explained.

Amongst teenagers, poor impulse control, examination stress, love affairs and parental pressures are found to be prominent reasons for suicides. Experts suggest adoption of a practical system of education, counseling and religious education for preventing suicides.

The epidemic has not only plagued the local population of Kashmir but has endangered hundreds of Indian paramilitary troops deployed in the Valley as well. A recent report issued by the Indian Defense Ministry found that 780 Indian paramilitary troops have committed suicide since 2005, mostly by shooting themselves.

The study shows that 38.56 percent of Indian forces are schizophrenic, 14.17 percent suffer from alcoholism and 9.8 per cent are struggling with depression.

Tremendous psychological stress, loneliness, short leaves and hostile conditions are stated to be major reasons for the rise in suicides amongst troops.

(END)

Drug abuse, known to be widespread among youth in India’s northern Kashmir state, is now showing a new trend whereby teenage girls and women are increasingly turning into substance abusers and addicts.

At the police de-addiction centre in Srinagar. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

Toluene abuse or ‘glue sniffing’ has become widespread because the chemical is readily found in paints, petrol, varnishes, lacquers, paint thinners, adhesives, glues, rubber cement and shoe polish.

“The abuse of toluene is getting very common in Kashmir because it is easily available,” says Dr. Areeb Malik at the police de-addiction centre here.

“Getting other drugs is a bit more difficult for girls than buying ink remover or polish,” said Malik, adding that females as young as 13 years have been found involved.

Doctors say the major causes for drug addiction among girls are peer pressure, stress, family disputes, failure in life, examination stress, love affairs and psychiatric disorders.

What authorities at the police de-addiction centre find worrisome is the total lack of facilities for female drug addicts. “We do not admit female drug addicts,” said Malik.

Female addicts may seek consultation at the centre, but are then left to their own devices. “We prescribe medicines to female addicts but they are never kept under complete supervision which is most important for de-addiction,” said Malik.

Typically, female drug addicts do not come back after the first consultation. “The doctors are always uncertain if they are following prescriptions or whether they have given up drugs,” says Malik.

Besides lack of facilities, social stigma restricts women from seeking rehabilitation or treatment.

“Keeping in view the social stigma which female drug addicts face, it is important to set up a de-addiction centre for them,” said Sameena (name changed), a 22-year-old college student and former drug addict.

Sameena said she began with glue sniffing “for fun” during her school days and then moved on to opiates. Fear of social stigma and lack of facilities forced her parents to take her outside Kashmir for treatment. Sameena has been under medication for 11 months now.

Mohsin Ali, an official at the stress management cell of the police de-addiction centre, set up in February 2011, said 298 calls were received from drug addicts until November 2011, including 11 from females.

“We once received a call from a teenage girl who said she, along with 18 of her female friends, wanted to quit drugs. But, we never heard from them after that,” Ali told IPS.

Yasir Ahmad, a social worker at the centre, said there was a need for de-addiction centres devoted to treating both males and females. “There was a time when Kashmir had one addict from each district but now there are more than one in a single family.”

The state health department does not gather or maintain data on the status of drug addiction in Kashmir, adding to the worries.

“The direct impact of addiction is social disintegration. It splits families, friends’ circles and subsequently society. It is commonly known that addicts live in isolation,” said A.G. Madhosh, psychologist and former professor at the University of Kashmir.

Madhosh said youth on drugs may physically live in the same house with their families, but live alone emotionally. “They do not care about what happens to their near ones and these insensitivities extend towards society.”

“Additionally, their poor performance in education or at work is burdensome to society. We can easily imagine the fate of a society with a large number of addicts,” Madhosh said.

The problem of drug abuse in Kashmir was highlighted by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme survey in 2008 which showed that there were more than 70,000 drug addicts in Kashmir, 4,000 of them women.

That survey also revealed that 65 to 70 percent of the student community in Kashmir was into drugs and that 26 percent of female students were involved in drug abuse. More than 70 percent of addicts fall in the 18-35 age-group.

Leading psychiatrist Dr. Mushtaq Margoob in his study, ‘The Menace of Drug Abuse in Kashmir’, conducted in 2008, found that more than 200,000 people in the Kashmir valley which has a population of four million people were on opiates.

Margoob’s study, made public in 2009, is currently the only authentic report available regarding drug abuse in Kashmir. No survey has since been undertaken in the state.

Maheen was nine years old when she witnessed the death of her elder brother. At the age of 10 she saw the dead body of her neighbour, killed in the crossfire between Kashmiri rebels and Indian security forces, his guts spilled out on the road.

The unprecedented growth of psychiatric disorders in Kashmir has left many patients completely isolated. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

Just two months later, Maheen witnessed a bomb blast that killed five people before her eyes. Her situation worsened when she lost her father to cardiac arrest and witnessed the death of a cousin, who was also caught in the crossfire between the warring sides.

Maheen started experiencing serious panic attacks, would sometimes become unconscious and often relive the events that had led to her distress.

Soon, doctors at the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital of Srinagar had diagnosed Maheen for severe post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the age of 15.

Though Maheen, now 26, is still under medication, her doctor says she often feels sad and breaks down into tears unexpectedly. He concludes that the events in her childhood and early adulthood are deeply etched into her mind.

Maheen is not alone in her plight. Twenty-three years of conflict have led to the unprecedented growth of psychiatric disorders in the region, particularly anxiety disorder, panic disorder, sleep disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and, most commonly, PTSD, which has impacted thousands of people in the region.

In October 2011, a study conducted at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) revealed that 55 percent of Kashmir’s population suffers from various kinds of mental disorders.

Based on his patient population study, psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob says that 58 percent of the population has been through some kind of mental trauma, leaving more than 800,000 Valley-dwellers suffering from PTSD.

Arshad Hussain, a local psychiatrist, stressed that persistently witnessing traumatic events like unnatural deaths, blasts, gun battles and other violent incidents obviously takes a severe toll on a person’s mental health.

The number of patients attending Kashmir’s sole mental health hospital has increased from 1200 in 1989 to 100,000 in 2011. The Out Patients Department of Psychiatry at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar, which was founded in 2008, receives an average of 150-200 patients a day, most of them young boys and girls.

Although no comprehensive study on children’s mental health has been conducted in Kashmir, Hussain believes, “The conflict has undoubtedly given rise to (an unprecedented rate of) psychiatric disorders among children in Kashmir,” with PTSD being most prevalent.

Hussain described a four-year-old girl who went “completely numb for months after witnessing a gun battle between troops and militants in her own house.”

“The effect of witnessing a bomb blast or seeing a dead body is much more (taxing) on children than on adults,” he continued. “Adults have (the capacity) to reason it out – children don’t.”

The problem is particularly grave amongst children living in orphanages, which, doctors say, are breeding grounds for psychiatric disorders.

A research report on the prevalence of disorders among children in Kashmir’s orphanages, undertaken by a host of local medical practitioners, found that 40.62 percent of all orphans between 5- 12 years suffer from PTSD, followed by major depressive disorder (MDD), which has been diagnosed in 25 percent of all orphans.

Conversion disorder is present in 12.5 percent of orphaned children, panic disorder in 9.38 percent, attention deficit hyperkinetic disorder (ADHD) in 6.25 percent and seizure disorder in 6.2 percent. Margoob, who collaborated on the study, explained that orphanages only provide children with their basic physical needs like food, clothing and shelter, while neglecting their psychological and emotional health.

“If a particular child is good at painting or sports, their talent remains unexplored, thereby negatively affecting the child’s mental and intellectual development,” Margoob added.

Like children, the female population has been severely affected by violence and bloodshed in the region.

Records from the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital reveal that 15 percent of women are suffering from prolonged trauma and stress manifesting in symptoms such as frequent palpitations, lack of interest or motivation, sleep disorders and appetite loss.

A full 70-80 percent of all cases of acute depression are women, 16 percent of whom have PTSD. Many of these women are either widows or the wives of disappeared husbands – referred to in the region as ‘half widows’ – who are commonly diagnosed with anxiety, stress, irrational fear, depression, PTSD and various phobias.

Despite the growing incidence of mental disorders, Kashmir has only one official institution dedicated to psychiatric care, located in Srinagar. Two local general hospitals are equipped with an ‘out patients department’ for psychiatry. No facilities are available at district level. People from far flung areas are forced to travel to Srinagar for treatment.

Not a single department capable of tackling the issue of child psychiatry exists in the region.

Sociologist point out that conflict has cast a dark shroud over Kashmir under which scores of people suffer from severe depression, tension, suicidal tendencies and, often, extreme isolation and loneliness.

Mental disorders have also taken their toll on society as a whole, straining everything from familial relationships to student-teacher dynamics, said B. A. Dabla, a sociologist at the University of Kashmir.

Besides a lack of facilities, he told IPS, social taboos restrict people from seeking treatment for their conditions.

“A large number of people do not turn up for treatment and live with their illness. Only a very small number of people receive treatment at all,” he added.

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Dec 18 2011 (IPS)

A few days after his wedding in 2008, Imran* was thrown behind bars in Srinagar’s central jail for the alleged abduction and rape of his wife Shafeen. Shafeen denied the charge against her newlywed husband. It was her parents, furious that the couple married against their wishes, who ensured that the young bridegroom languished in prison for two years, until he was bailed out in 2010.

Young love can run a difficult course in Kashmir. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS.

At the session of Jammu and Kashmir State’s legislative assembly in September, the government revealed figures on the number of rape case reported in the last four years.

Throughout all of Kashmir’s districts, Srinagar holds the highest number of reported rape, totaling 120 between 2006 and 2010.

But of the hundreds of pending cases in Kashmir’s district courts, legal experts say the majority of them are unsupported by sufficient evidence.

“They are mostly cases registered by parents whose daughters have eloped, opted for love marriage or are involved in love affairs,” legal advocate Sheikh Mohammad Sultan told IPS.

Sadly, real incidents of rape, molestation and abuse go unreported in the Valley because of the negative stigma attached to them.

Imran and Shafeen had been in a relationship for many years and eventually defied the girl’s parents by marrying and moving in together. They have now been married for three years.

“When Shafeen’s parents found out, they filed a complaint against Imran at the local police station alleging him of abducting and raping Shafeen,” said Irfan Mattoo, Imran’s lawyer.

The police accepted these charges and arrested both Shafeen and Imran.

“When the couple presented their Nikah nama (marriage certificate), the police tore it into pieces. Meanwhile, Shafeen’s parents forced her to lodge a formal statement against Imran,” Mattoo said, adding that women and girls’ testimonies play a major role in incriminating the accused in rape cases.

“Later when Shafeen wanted to speak the truth and change her statement, she discovered it was illegal to do so,” Mattoo said.

A three-year-long legal battle has taken a heavy toll on the couple who, despite living together with their eight-month old son, are forced to appear in court as opponents for every single hearing.

Asma, a 14-year-old girl from the outskirts of Srinagar city, is living a similar nightmare.

“Asma was involved with a boy named Feroz, a relationship her parents were aware of. One day when Asma went missing from her home, her parents filed a complaint against Feroz, accusing him of rape and abduction,” Sultan, a legal advocate fighting Asma’s case, told IPS.

Having come from a rural background, Feroz was working as a conductor for buses owned by Asma’s father at the time of his arrest. Though Asma filed an official statement that clearly denies the charges against Feroz, her status as a minor renders the statement almost useless, Sultan added.

The couple now live together with their son while the case moves forward in court.

Sultan claims that similar cases number in the thousands all across the Valley. “Since these stories are not at the forefront of the media and people are unable or unprepared to discuss the issue, young couples often suffer in silence,” he said.

Given that Sharia law does not define a legal age for women to marry – and actually grants women equal rights as men to marry according to their wishes – experts are perturbed by society’s aversion to the written codes of Islamic law.

Social activists believe that parents and religious clerics have a huge role to play in eradicating the unjust practice of parents falsely crying “rape”.

“When Islam itself gives a girl the right to choose her own husband, why are her parents so resistant to the idea?” asked Nighat Pandit, a social activist in Srinagar.

She strongly believes that religious clerics should educate both parents and youth about the moral and religious values involved in such a choice.

Qurat-ul-Ain, a renowned columnist and independent social activist, thinks that parents should provide proper guidance to their children. She also suggested that victims expose the reality behind these false cases and protect themselves and others against the archaic practice.

*The victims’ names in this story have been changed.

Excerpt:

A woman in Bangladesh recovers from an acid attack by her husband. Credit: Narayan Nath/FCO/DFID/CC BY 2.0

By Sana Altaf and - -
SRINAGAR , Dec 13 2011 (IPS)

Increased education and employment opportunities for women in Kashmir might have brought monetary independence and a degree of empowerment but it also has women ensnared in a vicious trap of domestic violence.

A woman in Bangladesh recovers from an acid attack by her husband. Credit: Narayan Nath/FCO/DFID/CC BY 2.0

“Women’s education and employment is essential to bridge the gender gap but it has sadly had a negative impact in the form of retaliatory domestic violence, which manifests as both verbal and physical abuse,” B.A. Dabla, a sociologist at the University of Kashmir, told IPS.

The demise last month of 28-year-old Shazia Majeed, the mother of a three-year-old girl, illustrates Dabla’s statement.

Educated and employed as a librarian at the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Kashmir, Shazia was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room on Nov. 9. Though police suspect suicide, Shazia’s parents believe their daughter’s death to be a fatal case of domestic violence.

Shazia’s father says that his son-in-law, Javaid Ahmad, tortured his wife verbally and physically on a daily basis for not bringing him a big enough dowry. He often threw her out of the house and finally divorced her verbally after she gave birth to a daughter.

The couple subsequently tried to patch things up because “Shazia wished to save her five-year-old marriage,” Shazia’s father told IPS.

But the abuse continued until Shazia was found dead earlier this year.

“I don’t think my daughter would commit suicide – she has been very brave and courageous, though she suffered all through her married life,” Shazia’s father said.

Clash of traditions

According to Hafeeza Muzaffar, secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir State Commission for Women, “As more women gain access to education, they become aware of their rights. They are less likely to unquestioningly tolerate these kinds of abuses, which triggers conflict in the family.”

“I have encountered women who believe it is a husband’s right to beat his wife – this is the kind of society we live in,” Muzaffar told IPS, adding that it will take time for the majority of Kashmiri society to adjust to the changing gender dynamics and for men and conservative women to accept the new role of contemporary women.

“A decade ago, the women of Kashmir were almost universally relegated to the household. When the newly-liberated women come in contact with their traditional mothers-in-law, there is bound to be tension,” she added.

This ‘tension’ resulted in tragedy for Ulfat Jan, a thirty-five-year-old mother of three, from the Seer village of the Anantnag district of Kashmir, who is currently an in-patient at the Srinagar hospital, recovering from a particularly brutal episode of domestic violence.

Last week, Ulfat’s husband Shabir Ahmad, together with his parents, poured kerosene oil on her and set her body ablaze when she protested Shabir’s extramarital affair.

“I had gone to meet the girl who was having an affair with Shabir, simply to ask her to leave my husband. But when Shabir came to know of it, he grew angry,” Ulfat told IPS, struggling to talk through her charred and swollen lips. Her face, legs and arms were covered all over in bloody abscesses, a result of third-degree burns.

“He poured a whole can of kerosene oil on me, lit the stove and left the room as my body caught fire. My mother-in-law tied my arms so I couldn’t run away,” Ulfat said with difficulty.

In order to save the house from catching fire, Ulfat’s brother-in-law pushed her out of the window. “Then my sister-in-law poured boiling rice water over me. I don’t know what happened after that,” Ulfat said.

Some neighbours who intervened on the scene took her to the hospital. Local police arrested Ulfat’s husband and the case is currently under investigation.

Such incidents are just the tip of the iceberg of rampant abuse throughout the Valley.

Widespread abuse

Back in 2009, Dabla interviewed 200 married and unmarried women for a comprehensive study on domestic abuse and found that 63 percent of the respondents feel discriminated against by their families in respect to their education and employment, among other things.

Thirty two percent of the working women surveyed face condemnation from their in-laws for their work and almost 50 percent feel that their in-laws are jealous of their work, which, according to Dabla, is one of the leading causes of psychological torture; in fact, a full 40 percent of the respondents stressed that they had been victims of emotional and psychological abuse.

Perhaps the most insidious aspect of the accelerating domestic violence is that “Thirty three percent of victims choose to suffer silently without taking action,” Dabla told IPS.

According to Muzaffar, “Eighty percent of cases registered with (the State Commission for Women) relate to domestic violence and we receive at least three or four new cases every day.”

Since its establishment in 1999, the Commission has been tasked with safeguarding women’s constitutional rights, redressing grievances and recommending legislative action to women who have faced discrimination or abuse.

From April 2000-March 2010 the Commission registered 1333 cases from Kashmir, most of them related to domestic violence.

Data from the State Crime Record Bureau indicates that between April and December 2009 the Commission received reports of 83 rapes and gang rapes, 185 cases of abduction, 463 complaints of molestation, 189 reports of sexual harassment, 11 ‘dowry deaths’ and 87 incidents involving cruelty by husbands and relatives.

In just three shorts months, between January and March of 2010, the Commission received 24 cases of rape and gang rape, 73 cases of abduction, 139 cases of molestation and 50 cases of sexual harassment.

Renowned sociologist Peerzada Mohammad Amin told IPS that women are trapped in a cruel cycle of exploitation.

“On one hand, women are encouraged to pursue their education and get jobs but they are still expected to shoulder the responsibility of the household,” he said.

“Even if a woman works full time in her office she still returns home to do all the unpaid domestic work single handedly. When she shows reluctance, she faces confrontation from her in-laws,” Amin added.

Having lain dormant for decades, Kashmir’s Domestic Violence Act was re-enacted on July 12, 2011. On paper, the legislation provides for more effective protection for survivors of domestic violence but its tangible successes are few and far between.

“Many Acts are implemented but remain restricted to paper,” M.A. Wani, a legal advocate in Kashmir, told IPS.

“Our society has forced women to suffer in silence for so long that this Act will have to be fought hard on the ground in order to be successful,” he added.

“What we need is a complete transformation of our society into one that accepts the new status of women and fights to end domestic violence,” Dabla said.

Excerpt:

Saffron cultivation is facing decline in Kashmir. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS.

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Dec 8 2011 (IPS)

The saffron and silk industries in Kashmir have been dying a silent death over the last decade, with production rates for both commodities witnessing up to 50 percent declines in some areas of the Kashmir Valley.

A growing market for cheap, ‘fake’ saffron – either chemically manufactured or ‘cut’ with additives to increase its weight – has dealt a harsh blow to traditional, world renowned saffron producers and sellers in Kashmir.

Meanwhile, a mismanaged government monopoly over the silk industry coupled with an invasion of cheap Chinese silk has choked local production, pushing thousands of producers out of business.

As a result, Saffron farmers and silk rearers are facing hard times in the lush Kashmir Valley.

Official figures estimate that the production of saffron has declined from 16 to 6.5 tonnes in the last year alone, accounting for a more than 60 percent decrease in just 12 months.

Land under saffron cultivation has shrunk rapidly, from 5,707 hectares in 1997-98 to just 3,010 hectares in the 2006-2007 financial year.

Likewise, production of silk cocoons has plummeted from 1.5 million kilograms (kg) in the 1960s to just over 800,000 kg in 2011, cutting the output of raw silk from 170 to 107 metric tons.

Kashmir is one of a handful of places on this earth that grows natural saffron, along with Iran and Spain, and has long been considered to have the best quality saffron in the world, with rich crop plantations in Pampore, Pulwama, Budgam and Kishtiwar.

But Saleem Shakeel Mir, managing director of Kashmir Kesar Leader, Kashmir’s leading saffron producer, told IPS that the influx of false saffron has lacerated the market for honest producers.

“Chemically-altered and synthetic products are being sold for a fraction of the price of organic Kashmiri saffron, both within and outside the Valley,” he said.

Since laymen are unable to differentiate between pure and artificial saffron, the cheaper product is selling fast, Mir added.

“If pure Kashmiri saffron costs 110 rupees (or just over two dollars) per gram, synthetics cost as little as 30 rupees. As a result, traditional Kashmir saffron growers have suffered an almost 70 percent loss.”

Mir also blames saffron growers’ hardships and waning cultivation on the rampant industrialisation in the valley, including the proliferation of residential houses in the area, which eats up swathes of land that could otherwise be used for crops.

“A decade ago, 10 kanals of land (that is, just over 6,000 square yards) were under saffron cultivation; today just four kanals, less than half the original amount, are used,” Saleem said.

Abdul Gaffar, a saffron grower from Pampore said that fake saffron has forced farmers to give up their decades’ old practice.

“With the filth that’s entering the market, there is no place for original saffron. We spend thousands of rupees on cultivating saffron and get almost nothing in return,” said Gaffar.

Gaffar has seen his area of saffron cultivation shrivel by 60 percent.

“If this situation remains unchanged, I might have to abandon cultivation altogether like many others have done,” Gaffar told IPS.

In an effort to combat the crisis, the government recently announced the National Mission on Saffron for Economic Revival, its latest five-year plan aimed at increasing saffron production from 2.32 to five kg per hectare.

Silk production slips through farmers’ fingers

According to Malik Farooq, director of the Sericulture Department of State, government efforts to save the silk industry have gained much less ground, possibly because a decades-long government monopoly over the silk industry contributed to its decline in the first place.

Silk is one of Kashmir’s oldest trades. In 1855, Europe was Kashmir’s biggest silk trading partner, purchasing 70 kg of silkworm seeds every year. The period immediately following the end of British rule opened a glorious phase for Kashmiri silk.

“After the1980’s there was a sudden decline in silk production and the industry began to suffer,” Farooq told IPS.

The rigid state monopoly that had once boosted the industry became its greatest impediment. The government bought all the silk cocoons from the locals but managed every other stage of the production process themselves.

“However, this did not prove to be very profitable,” said Farooq.

According to official government statistics, the number of silkworm rearers shrank from 60,000 in 1947 to a mere 7,161 in 1995.

The area of land under mulberry cultivation shriveled from thousands of hectares in the early 1900s to less than 2,000 hectares in 1990.

From employing 1830 labourers on 584 silk production units, the silk industry now only has the capacity for 200 workers on 30 silk production units.

Furthermore, “the invasion of Chinese silk in the market and the lack of government policy or proper protections for domestic producers has practically killed our local industry,” Shafat Ahmad, a silk rearer by trade, told IPS, adding that it is practically impossible to compete with China’s low prices.

Farooq believes the government should compensate silk rearers for their losses in order to keep the local industry alive. As it is, many silk producers are abandoning the trade altogether since they are unable to make ends meet.

According to the Sericulture Department’s report, ‘Recent Trends in Development of Bivoltine Sericulture in Jammu and Kashmir’, silk rearers also have to contend with other agricultural crops, market shocks and volatility, the dumping of cheap bivoltine silk on the local market and a lack of government development funds.

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Oct 14 2011 (IPS)

Fourteen-year-old Shafat Ahmad works as a domestic helper in the house of a Srinagar-based government employee in Kashmir. His younger sister embroiders shawls in an unregistered textile venture in her native village of Beeru.

“When my father first brought me here, my employer promised to send me to school,” Shafat told IPS. Though he is keen to pursue his education, he has yet to attend a single class.

The Ahmed siblings’ story is just one among thousands, as increasing numbers of children across the Kashmir Valley become mired in a child labour epidemic that strips them of their childhood and the chance for a decent education.

Kashmir’s handicrafts industry, which has long served as the backbone of the state economy, has recently gained more sinister recognition as one of the state’s leading employers of child labourers.

A prominent sociologist, B.A. Dabla, told IPS that the shawl industry was a particularly ravenous employer of children, especially young girls, whose small hands are useful for the intricate work of shawl making.

‘Alarming levels’ of child labourers

The 2001 census counted 175,000 child labourers in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, though other estimates believe the number is closer to 250,000.

A 2003 research study by the British non-governmental organisation Save the Children, entitled ‘Adphail Gulab’ (Unbloomed Roses), found 22,000 child labourers in Kashmir – 19,000 working in carpet manufacturing units in the central district of Budgam and two to three thousand employed in automobile workshops in Srinagar.

“But today, based on our recent observations, those numbers are much higher,” Shareef Ahmad, an official at Save the Children, told IPS.

“We don’t have the most recent numbers yet, though we plan to conduct a fresh survey on child labour, which has recently attained alarming levels (in the region),” he added.

Filmmaker Bilal Ahmad Jan, whose documentary ‘The Lost Childhood’ was recently screened at the Teheran International Short Film Festival, said that in addition to wage labour, the practice of bonded labour is rampant in the outskirts of Kashmir Valley.

“While shooting for my documentary, I came across scores of handicrafts sectors where children work as bonded labourers. Basically, parents take credit from an employer and then force their children to work off the debt,” Bilal Jan told IPS.

He added that the village of Beeru has extraordinarily high rates of bonded labour, considered modern- day slavery.

“In each workshop, I found an average of 90 to 100 children between the ages of seven and 14 years old registered as workers,” he said.

While talking to the children there, Bilal Jan learnt that many worked 12-hour shifts, often without a single day off.

“Many of them would only return home at midnight,” he said, adding that 10 percent of the child labourers he met were affected by the armed conflict in Kashmir.

“Many of the child workers had lost their fathers to the conflict; others were the offspring of deceased militants. In the absence of a traditional family breadwinner, these children were forced to work (in order to) support their families,” the filmmaker said.

Uneducated and impoverished

A 2009 study conducted by the Central Asian studies department at the University of Kashmir found that huge numbers of working children are uneducated or undereducated, a fact that constitutes a grave violation of human rights.

According to the study, nearly 34 percent of child labourers have only received a fifth grade education, while just over 66 percent have only studied up until the eighth grade.

Once they start working, 80 percent of child labourers stop attending school altogether.

Given that 9.2 percent of child labourers are between five and 10 years old, while 90 percent of them are between 11 and 14 years old, these trends foretell a grim picture of an entire generation of impoverished and uneducated youth.

Other studies highlight the immense struggle families face to feed themselves and their young. More than 80 percent of the child workforce comes from families with six to 10 members, with just over 15 percent from families of 11 to 15 members.

Furthermore, over 61 percent of parents of child labourers are illiterate. When questioned about reasons for putting their children to work, most parents cited poverty, acquisition of skills in traditional family arts, lack of quality education and the inaccessibility of schools.

“Poverty is one of the major reasons for child labour in Kashmir. Parents are compelled to send their children to work as they are unable to feed their families,” Urfana Amin, former district resource coordinator for children, told IPS.

However, child workers’ wages are scarcely sufficient to put food on the table.

Over half the working children earn an average of one to five hundred rupees a month. In U.S. dollars, this works out to about 33 cents a day.

Slightly less than 42 percent of working children earn five hundred to one thousand rupees per month, at most 66 cents a day, and just over one percent of child labourers take home more than 1,000 rupees a month.

Urfana also said that most of these children are forced to work in “horrific conditions”.

Dabla, who recently conducted a study on the living conditions of child labourers in Kashmir, said that their surroundings were “filthy, with no proper drinking water or even lavatories”.

He said that many of these children suffer from myopia, migraines and neck problems, as well as being susceptible to a wide range of diseases.

The Save the Children report also claimed that children working in the carpet industry lack basic amenities and work a six-day week. Nearly 80 percent of these labourers suffer from myopia and retinal detachment due to constant eye strain.

Additionally, substantial gender disparities abound in these informal industries. Over 69 percent of child labourers in the handicrafts industry are females, and young girls often face gender-based wage discrimination.

Despite these horrifying details, the government has done very little to curb the issue or enforce existing labour laws.

The state’s social welfare department and department of labour and employment do not even provide basic data on the number of children working in the region.

When asked about the steps being taken to address the issue, deputy labour commissioner M.A. Khan told IPS, “We have prosecuted 50 offenders (child labour employers) in two years, of which one has been fined.” Khan added that the government is doing its part to address reported cases of child labour by conducting surprise raids on handicrafts workshops.

Excerpt:

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, India, Oct 10 2011 (IPS)

“Is Afzal Guru really the person that so many Indians supposedly want dead? Or are they taking out their frustrations on an easy target?” asked Human Rights Watch, referring to the death sentence handed down to the Kashmiri man who was convicted of conspiracy in the 2001 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament.

“For many, Afzal bears the burden of representing all those who dare to oppose Indian rule in restive parts of the country, because the attack on Parliament was an attack on India,” said the statement by Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher for global rights watchdog HRW.

“Conversely, many Kashmiris would say that Afzal is a freedom fighter, planning an attempt at the symbol of Indian oppression,” adds the statement, titled ‘Life, Not Death: Why Afzal Mustn’t Hang’. “Both views are flawed. For this multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state to survive, Indians have to believe in equal justice for all. And in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, there has been consistent failure to deliver on this promise.”

A Kashmiri, supported by a wife who is a doctor and a lone teenage son, Mohammad Afzal, commonly called Afzal Guru, was found guilty of conspiracy in the attack on parliament which killed more than a dozen people. He was given the death penalty, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004.

The sentence was to be carried out in 2006, but the execution was stayed following a mercy plea filed by Afzal Guru.

Although most nations across the globe – a total of 139 – have abolished the death penalty, India continues the practice, as the World Day Against the Death Penalty once again rolled around on Oct. 10.

India joined 53 other countries to vote against the December 2007 United Nations General Assembly moratorium on executions, passed with 104 votes in favour and 29 abstentions. However, Indian judges generally follow the 1983 Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty may be resorted to only in the “rarest of rare cases”.

Afzal’s death penalty has not gone down well amongst various quarters in Kashmir. The separatist leaders view it as an unjust step, which would endanger the political situation in Kashmir

“I am completely against execution of Afzal Guru. He didn’t get a fair trial. Hanging him would be pure human rights violation,” said Shabir Ahmad Shah, the chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party, a separatist organisation.

He says that Afzal’s hanging could have a negative impact on the situation in Kashmir. “When Maqbool Bhat was hanged in India’s Tihar jail in 1984, it was followed by insurgency. And if Afzal is also hanged, it will as well result in dangerous consequences,” Shabir told IPS. “People would surely come on streets and protest against it as no Kashmiri wants his hanging.”

The unrest in Kashmir has its roots back in 1947, when Britain granted India independence and the Muslim-dominated areas became part of Pakistan. A U.N. resolution, meantime, gave Kashmiris the option to join either Hindu-dominated India or Pakistan or to become independent. But Kashmiris had no chance to make a choice as their homeland is claimed by both India and Pakistan.

Roughly a third of modern-day Kashmir is administered by Pakistan while the rest is under India. But many Kashmiris challenge this, and protesters living on the Indian side rose up in arms in 1989 in an insurgency that simmers to this day.

Saying Afzal did not get a fair trial, Sajjad Lone, another separatist leader, said intellectuals, NGOs and civil society in general needs to stand up against Afzal’s execution, which he said “will not suit the people of Kashmir.”

Hardline separatist leader of Kashmir Syed Ali Shah Geelani warned of “dire consequences” if Afzal Guru is hanged, saying in a statement in August that “it will unleash a storm.”

Human rights activists and organisations have also criticised Afzal’s death sentence, which they see as a human rights abuse.

“Afzal Guru’s case is being adjudicated upon in terms of its politics, not in relation to the violations of process and hearing that have taken place. The death penalty has no place in a democracy,” said Angana Chatterji, a professor of social and cultural anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, and the co-convener of the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir.

Chatterji says despite the international movement to abolish capital punishment and the 2007 U.N. moratorium on executions, “India continues to impose the (death) penalty. The allocation of capital punishment continues to be influenced by racism, ethnocentrism, and class prejudice, authorising the state to act against a person’s right to life.”

Kashmir-based human rights activist Khurram Parvez, a co-founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), says the sentence handed down to Afzal was not based on a fair trial.

“If anyone reads that judgment, one would come to know that he was pronounced guilty on secondary evidence. No direct evidence was produced in the court against Afzal Guru,” Parvez told IPS.

Citing the Supreme Court sentence, he said it states that “the incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, has shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”

“When there is no evidence against Afzal, why should he be hanged? To satisfy the collective conscience of society, it appears India needs a sacrifice,” Parvez added.

Advocate Faisal Qadri said the death penalty should be abolished in India. “I am completely against the death penalty. It is the worst kind of human rights violation. Humans have no right to kill anyone, even if it is a criminal.”

And Qadri argued that in Afzal Guru’s case, capital punishment is completely unjustified: “Even India’s own leading lawyers admit that Afzal was not given a fair trial.”

For ordinary people, the sentence handed to Afzal is a manifestation of India’s bias against Kashmiris.

“The Indian system is biased against Kashmiri people…there are scores of innocent Kashmiri youth who are arrested on the basis of mere suspicion and put behind bars for years with no evidence. How can we expect India to be just to Afzal?” said Iqbal (who provided only one name).

“Whenever any Kashmiri is found involved in any wrong act, India has to act in an unjust manner. That has been India’s policy towards Kashmir,” says Amina Maqbool, a political science student from the University of Kashmir

The HRW statement says the group “unequivocally opposes the death penalty. Guilty or not, we believe that neither Mohammad Afzal Guru, nor (law student) Priyadarshini Mattoo’s killer, Santosh Kumar Singh, nor (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein, nor anyone else, should be executed.

“Taking the life of a human being is inherently cruel, and as a form of punishment is unique in its irreversibility. The intrinsic fallibility of all criminal justice systems assures that even when there is a fair judicial process, innocent persons will still be executed. On a practical level, there is no evidence that it is an effective deterrent,” it adds.

Excerpt:

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Sep 13 2011 (IPS)

When the sole Community Care Centre in Jammu and Kashmir providing medical and psychosocial services to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) closed down for lack of patients it was a sure sign that the north Indian state had beaten back dire forecasts.

“There were few people coming in and fewer new cases,” Dr. M. A. Wani, former director of the Jammu and Kashmir AIDS Prevention and Control Society (JKAPCS), told IPS, explaining the closure six months ago.

The latest sentinel survey conducted by the JKAPCS in 2010 shows an HIV prevalence of 0.03 percent – down from the 1.2 percent in the survey conducted in 2009.

According to official statistics, of the 4,846 test samples taken in the year 2008 only three persons were found to be HIV positive, and of the 4,840 samples tested in 2009 not one was found positive.

Such figures contrast sharply with grim projections made by the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) in 2002-2003 that some 40,000 people would be infected with HIV within two years in Jammu and Kashmir and that 20,000 people would die of AIDS by 2015.

Since 1997, only 193 new patients have tested positive for HIV, most of them urban males in the 15 – 45 age group. There are now 2,787 PLWHA, including 800 women and 176 children, in this state with a population of 12.5 million people.

NACO figures released in June say there are 683 people on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in Jammu and Kashmir where the total number of people recorded as ever getting full-blown AIDS stands at 1,123 – out of which 203 have died.

The low and declining rates have not made life easier for PLHWA, because of the strong social stigma attached to the disease and difficulties in accessing anti-retroviral drugs.

Mudasir Ahmed, 27, HIV positive, secretly travels 30 km from an outlying town to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar’s premier medical facility, to collect his stock of medicines.

“I have not told my family about my disease because it will hurt them a lot. They will hate me forever,” said Mudasir, while waiting for his turn to collect his medicines.

“I know that I have to have an adequate stock of medicines because they keep me alive. It gets really difficult at times to make excuses at home,” says Mudasir, who tested positive two years ago and is now studying to be a commerce graduate.

Experts say that the majority of HIV sufferers in the state are youth and troops deployed in strength in the state to fight armed separatist insurgency.

“Besides troops, youth are the major victims of HIV in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They fall in the age group of 15 – 45 years,” says Dr. Latief Ahmad, deputy director at the JKAPCS.

Latief said that the major route for transmission of the virus in the state is sexual. “Cases involving spread of HIV through blood transfusion have hardly come to our notice,” Latief told IPS.

He added that the valley faces threat of HIV mainly from troops, truck drivers, migrant labourers and people who travel regularly.

Wani told IPS that the slow economic development of the state may be one reason for low HIV prevalence. “It has been noted that well-developed cities and towns fall prey more easily to HIV. Since Kashmir is largely underdeveloped, we are on the safer side,” Wani says.

Other factors that may have contributed to the low HIV prevalence is the intensive awareness campaigns and counselling mounted by the JKAPCS.

“We have carried out extensive campaigning involving people from the ground level to school teachers and political leaders,” said Wani. “Even religious leaders were roped in.”

Besides providing counselling to thousands of schoolteachers, the JKAPCS has trained 840 imams (mosque leaders) and about 500 granthis or Sikh temple preachers.

The state has two anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres, one each in the Jammu and Kashmir regions, but there are few patients.

“We have been able to get an ART centre in SKIMS with great difficulty because of the small number of patients,” Wani said.

Wani said that one reason for the social discrimination against PLHWA in Jammu and Kashmir is because “HIV/AIDS is still a new disease in the valley and people know very little about it.”

“Owing to the social stigma people are reluctant to discuss topics around HIV/AIDS or avail of testing and treatment service,” said Wani.

“It is very unfortunate that HIV victims are strongly discriminated against in our society despite the spread of education and mass awareness about HIV,” said Qurat-ul-ain, a social activist.

Qurat said HIV patients are looked down upon in Kashmiri society with infected females suffering more than males. “It will take generations for Kashmiri people to accept PLWHA.”

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By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Jul 29 2011 (IPS)

Kashmir’s juvenile justice system is sorely deficient for a state ridden with a long, and often violent, separatist conflict that attracts youth, say lawyers and rights activists.

Police detained several Kashmiri juveniles for stone-pelting in the 2010 unrest. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS

The result is that young people, many of them under trial, are lodged in regular jails along with hardened criminals.

“This is completely illegal as India’s Juvenile Justice Act (JJA) of 2000 clearly bars juveniles from being kept in regular jails,” Syed Faisal Qadri, a well-known Srinagar lawyer, told IPS.

The JJA calls for a special approach towards prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and provides a framework for the protection and rehabilitation of children. This law, which conforms to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is yet to be implemented in Kashmir.

Qadri links the non-implementation of the JJA in Kashmir to the ongoing conflict and the priority placed by the government on security. “Their priorities are low on child rights. This shows the insensitive attitude of the state towards its own children.”

According to Qadri, the government’s attitude can be gauged from the fact that a decade after the passage of the JJA no move has been made to build homes or infrastructure for the detention juveniles as required under the legislation.

“It seems that the government is avoiding implementation of the JJA so that it can continue to use tough laws like the Public Safety Act (PSA), which permit the preventive detention of children,” said Qadri. “Otherwise, there is no justification not to implement the JJA, ignoring favourable directions from the High Court.”

Qadri’s charges and the frailness of the juvenile justice system were palpable during a flare up of unrest of the summer of 2010 when hundreds of young people, many as young as 14, were detained for allegedly pelting stones at the police.

It took considerable effort on the part of the families of the minors and human rights organisations before they were granted bail or their detentions quashed by the courts.

Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, 14, was arrested for alleged stone pelting in April 2010 and booked under the PSA. He was granted bail after eight days, but was rearrested in the same month and finally released in February 2011.

“Mushtaq was innocent. He was made to suffer unnecessarily. He was only 14 years of age when picked up,” Mushtaq’s father, Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Sheikh, told IPS.

“Mushtaq quit studies and started working as a bus conductor and mechanic to help support the family,” the elder Sheikh said. “Mushtaq’s arrest not only deprived us of a son’s love but also reduced the meager income of a family with seven daughters.”

“The thought that Mushtaq would be tortured in custody haunted us through the long months that he was in custody,” said Sheikh. “We feared he would never be released.”

Faizaan Rafiq Hakeem, 15, who was booked under PSA in February, was released only after the intervention of Amnesty International. Harris Rasheed Langoo, 15, was detained in November 2010, despite being granted bail twice.

Murtaza Manzoor, aged 17, was released after three months in administrative detention after the state high court intervened and declared his imprisonment unlawful.

Though presently, no one below the age of 18 is in detention, scores of older youths are in jails on charges of stone pelting or violating prohibitive orders.

In March, the state government released figures which said 5,255 persons, including 799 students, were arrested across the state for alleged stone pelting during the unrest that ran between January 2010 and February 2011. Of these 264 continue to be in custody.

“It is a brutal fact that we do not have juvenile homes here. The teenagers and minors are put together with other criminals. This has a negative effect on children,” says B. A. Dabla, a sociologist who lectures at the University of Kashmir. “The children pick up the attitudes of the criminals and there is little chance of rehabilitation,” Dabla said. “Juveniles also face exploitation at the hands of other adult prisoners.”

Dabla said the implementation of the JJA in Kashmir without further delay was important because of the ongoing conflict in the state. “Our youth are exposed to the conflict and so many of them are unemployed.”

Mohammad Ayub, superintendent of the Srinagar district jail, told IPS that plans are being drawn up to build juvenile detention facilities and that he expects the age at which minors are deemed adults increased to 18 years.

Excerpt:

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Jul 8 2011 (IPS)

If films are the voice of society, then Indian Kashmir is mute, with a virtually non-existent film industry and the subsequent inability to nurture local talent.

The state also fails to measure up to Bollywood – as the Indian film industry is known – which has been producing countless films that are also being shown internationally. Ironically, many Bollywood blockbusters have been shot in Kashmir.

“Kashmir is one of the few places in the world which does not have its own film industry,” Ayaan Ahmad, a Kashmiri film student at the Centre for Research in Art of Film and Television in New Delhi, told IPS.

Filmmakers here say the dismal state of culture and arts, films included, is a result of the violence that has plagued Kashmir for nearly two decades. “I think the absence of a film industry must be seen within the context of the wider cultural space in Kashmir, now almost destroyed by 20 years of conflict,” filmmaker Sanjay Kak told IPS.

Kak said Kashmir’s older traditions of music and theatre are languishing while new traditions have simply not been given the space to grow. “But this is hardly surprising, since a new culture cannot grow within the deeply militarised space that Kashmir is.”

Violence has wracked Kashmir since 1989, when insurgents started waging a struggle for freedom from India, which controls two-thirds of Kashmir territory. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed since the insurgency began. “We have gone through so much during 20 years of conflict which we want to show through films, but we cannot,” said Ahmad.

Kashmir has never had a film industry. The scant efforts at film production have resulted in movies about Kashmir’s political history and social issues.

The first Kashmiri movie was “Manziraat” (Henna ceremony) released in 1964 and screened at a theatre in the main city of Kashmir. It was well received by the general population and even won the President’s Award for the best regional film in Kashmir.

After Manziraat, there was “Shayar-e-Kashmir Mehjoor” (Poet of Kashmir Mehjoor), a joint venture of the Kashmir Department of Information and Bollywood filmmakers, shot in both the Urdu and Kashmiri languages.

Since the release of Mehjoor nearly 40 years ago, filmmaking in Kashmir has stagnated. No feature film has been produced since then, except for the 2001 movie “Bub” (Father) directed by Jyoti Sarup, which won the National Film Award. Bub, though, was shown in the theatres of Jammu only and not in Kashmir, which is one of three regions in the northern state formally called Jammu and Kashmir. (The third region is Ladakh).

The start of the insurgency in 1989 further set back the production of Kashmiri films. Even movie houses were closed down. A feature film titled “Inqilab” (Revolution) was produced in 1989 but was not released due to the turbulent situation.

In the meantime, made-for-TV miniseries filled the void brought about by the absence of Kashmiri movies. The most popular among them were “Rasool Mir” (1974-1975), “Habba Khatoon”(1977-1978), and “Arnimaal” (1982-1983). All three were profiles of ancient poets of Kashmir.

The first digital Kashmiri feature film was released in 2006. Titled “Akh Daleel Loolech” (A love story), the movie revolved around the social and political struggle of the people of Kashmir in the 19th century while focusing on a true love story. The film was directed by Aarshad Mushtaq and premiered in New Delhi.

Filmmaker Kak said television could have been a way to sustain and nurture a new film culture but Doordarshan, India’s public television broadcaster, has never been able to overcome its bureaucracy and its mandate of producing propaganda.

“Money has been poured like sewage down the drains of the Doordarshan channels, but it has failed to produce good television, failed to nurture genuine talent, and failed even to produce effective propaganda,’’ Kak said.

Director Mushtaq views the lack of government support for the local film industry as a deliberate attempt by India to control Kashmir. “Local language films would popularise the local language and culture, which breed a feeling of being a different race,” and would thus lead to questioning of “India’s take over,” he said.

It is not just the film industry, but also film and media schools that are missing in Kashmir. There are no schools that provide training for filmmaking, acting or theatre.

“Institutions like the cinema and theatre are the hubs from where questions are raised, and the questions, if raised in Kashmir, always put India in a fix and slippery situations. So there are no liberal arts and cinema or theatre schools for Kashmir, a matter of national policy by India,” Mushtaq said.

A local artist who requested anonymity said orthodox Kashmiri society does not understand the worth of intellectuals and artists, thus restricting the introduction of media schools. “Kashmiris look down upon filmmakers and the like. Parents here want their children to be doctors and engineers, so that they can earn good money, and that is how they groom their children too. Inborn talents have no worth.”

The state of Jammu and Kashmir does not have its own Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and comes under the purview of central government. All cultural and other media related activities are pursued under the state’s cultural ministry largely through the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL).

JKAACL public relations officer Syed Shakeel-ur-Rehman said that it is outside the purview of the Academy to finance or provide infrastructure for films in Kashmir.

“We provide platforms to popularise locally made films by holding film festivals and competitions every year. We rate the films and award them too,” said Rehman, adding that filmmakers need to approach the film division of India about their issues.

However such festivals have been at a standstill for the past two years. “Lately we have been unable to hold film festivals, too, because we are not getting any funds,” Rehman said.

Excerpt:

By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Jun 28 2011 (IPS)

At a time when information technology has revolutionised life across the globe, Kashmir in north India lags behind the rest of the country, and the world, because it has no IT industry to speak of.

Officials and local residents say an IT sector would solve the unemployment problem in the Kashmir Valley, and prevent the exodus of young people studying information technology or searching for jobs in the industry elsewhere.

In India, one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the IT sector employs more than 2.5 million people and accounts for over five percent of the country’s gross domestic product and export earnings. India’s outsourcing industry is expected to hit 225 billion dollars by 2020.

But those figures exclude Kashmir. “The absence of an IT industry is a big void in Kashmir today,” Nazir A. Dar, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), told IPS.

Although mobile phones and the Internet have drastically changed the modes of communication here, IT industries and parks are still unknown. This has largely affected the youth who are forced to pursue IT jobs outside their home state. Thousands of Kashmiri youth are working in different IT companies elsewhere in India and abroad.

“Information technology is the most important sector in this century. But we lack it,” said Khurram Farooq, who works for an IT company in Bangalore.

Farooq says it was due to the absence of an IT sector that he had to move out of Kashmir. “If Kashmir had had an IT industry, I would never have come to Bangalore to find a job,” he said.

Sarah Ahmad, an IT student in Kashmir’s engineering college, feels anxious about her future given the absence of prospective jobs in the Valley. “I was fortunate to get admitted into Kashmir’s engineering college. But now I don’t know where I will find a job,” says Ahmad.

“I do not know how things will turn out. I don’t want to leave Kashmir and my family,” she adds.

Ahmad criticised government for neglecting the careers of Kashmiri youth by not paying attention to the IT industry. “Kashmir has talented youth but our authorities do not seem to be much concerned about their future. It is bizarre not to have an IT industry in the 21st century,” said Ahmad.

The problem is not just limited to IT-related jobs. Even provisions for IT education are limited. Kashmir Valley has only one government engineering college, the National Institute of Technology (NIT), and one private school, the Srinagar School of Management (SSM) College of Engineering and Technology.

SSM provides only diplomas in IT, while it is the NIT that offers degrees. Students who could not be accommodated in NIT have to move out of the state or study abroad.

SSM principal Dr N.A. Shah told IPS it is imperative to develop the IT industry to secure the future of Kashmiri youth. “Our intelligent and hardworking youth are suffering because we do not have proper IT education and IT industries here,” he said.

Thousands of IT-inclined students leave Kashmir every year, he added. Students studying civil engineering courses are well absorbed in various sectors in Kashmir but those from the IT field suffer.

Shah expressed concern for the poor and underprivileged who could not afford the expense of educating themselves outside Kashmir, and then settling there for jobs. “Their future gets ruined,” said Shah, who also sees the need to build the infrastructure for IT education and related jobs in the Valley.

With the educated but unemployed youth now numbering around 300,000, the development of the IT industry is seen as a means of fighting unemployment. Besides, IT is also considered the impetus for the state economy to grow.

“The IT sector will not only fight unemployment but will provide a boost to the state economy which is largely backed by tourism and handicrafts,” said Nazir of KCCI.

Kashmir’s Minister of Science and Technology and IT Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi blamed the conflict and disturbances in the Valley for the delay in the entry of IT companies.

“Unrest and disturbances are a major setback in this respect because multinational companies (MNCs) feel insecure in setting up their companies here,” Mehdi said.

Last year, some companies had shown willingness to establish their offices in Kashmir, but the six- month unrest forced them to hesitate before taking any step.

“It is not that the MNCs and other IT companies don’t give us a positive response. But they feel insecure. They do not want to come to a place which is insecure and where work is affected,” said Mehdi.

He also revealed some initiatives being taken at the government level to set up the IT sector, and said land in the outskirts of the Valley had been earmarked for an IT park. “It will be funded by the government of India. We are pursuing the legal part and hope to work on it soon,” Mehdi said.

He added that the government intends to provide all possible incentives to various IT companies to motivate them to set up their offices and branches in the Valley.

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By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR, Jun 15 2011 (IPS)

Thousands of people have died in 20 years of turmoil in Kashmir in northern India, but the conflict seems to have spared the animal population, particularly the severely endangered Kashmir stag or “hangul” whose population has grown in recent years.

Wildlife officials cite the recent census that showed the hangul population increasing to 218 as of March 2011, from 175 in 2009. In 2008, the figure was 127.

The hangul, the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir, belongs to the family of red deer distinct for having huge antlers with as many as 16 points. The red deer is found in some parts of Europe and Central Asia. In Kashmir, the hangul is now mostly found in the Zabarwan mountain range east of the capital Srinagar.

“There is no doubt that the insurgency has benefited the wildlife in Kashmir,” Javed Ahmad Panzoo, former regional wildlife warden for Kashmir, told IPS. “There are many reasons for it, but the decades- long conflict has also been a prominent cause.”

When the ongoing anti-India insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, locals were banned from owning guns, and those caught carrying them were treated as insurgents. Thus, people refrained from shooting birds and wild animals.

Wildlife warden Rashid Naqash told IPS that the insurgency has certainly helped the wildlife in a positive manner. “People here cannot own guns, and neither can they go into the forests, which ultimately benefits the wildlife,” Naqash said.

The vast stretches of forest became the battleground of militants and troops. Poachers stayed away for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

“The major benefit to wildlife during the conflict has been the presence of security forces and militants in the forests,” said Panzoo. “People did not even dare go into the forests, where they fear the presence of security forces or militants.”

Aside from the increase in the population of the hangul, the numbers of leopards and bears have grown as well.

The 2009 hangul census indicated that for every 100 females, there were 27 males and 28 fawns, as compared to 23 and nine respectively in 2008. “We are optimistic that the male-female-fawn ratio will also show an upward swing in the current census, and will subsequently lead to a marked increase in the hangul population in the coming years,” Naqash said.

The census was carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Wildlife Protection in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India and spanned over 450 sq kms of national parks, wildlife conservation reserves and forests.

But in a negative offshoot of the growth of wildlife and the occupation of forests by security forces and militants, the man-animal conflict has shown a drastic increase in the Kashmir valley. The state government revealed that 119 persons died and 1,072 others were injured in man-animal conflicts across the state during the past few years.

Excerpt: