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Fact Check! Awarene

EXCLUSIVE

Team Of Five Women Activists

Uncover Kashmir’s Reality, Say
Nothing Normal
Sanika Athavale Jammu and Kashmir
September 27th, 2019 / 7:41 PM / Updated 1 hours ago

Image Credits: Nayadaur

A man from Srinagar went to the airport to

receive his mother returning from Hajj. Failing to
see her, he enquired, only to be told that she had
died and been buried in Saudi Arabia, thousands
of miles away from him and her home.

Another commoner, Ghulam Ahmed choked as he

said, “How do I tell my loved ones that she (my
mother) is no more? There is no way to.” What
horriVed him was how his sisters in Traal slept
under the dark skies surrounded by guns,
unaware that their mother had passed away. He
buried her without her daughters, weeping at his
helplessness.

“What would you do in Delhi if internet services

were cut off for 5 minutes?”, Kashmiris are
unanimously asking with their vision blurred with
tears, but are receiving no answer AND only an
empty look…

Five women – Annie Raja, Kawaljit Kaur, Pankhuri

Zaheer from National Federation Indian Women,
Poonam Kaushik from Pragatisheel Mahila
Sangathan and Syeda Hameed from Muslim
Women’s Forum – with the mission to
understand how the 43-day-long lockdown had
affected the natives of Kashmir traversed through
the many villages of Shopian, Pulwama and
Bandipora districts from the 17th to the 21st of
September.

Apart from spending time in what was the

summer capital of the former state, they visited
hospitals, schools, homes and market places
speaking to people hailing from urban and rural
societies encompassing their young, aged,
female and male populations.

In their summarised published report, titled

‘Women’s Voice: Fact-Finding Report on Kashmir’,
the team says that their Vndings are their
“chashmdeed gawahi (eye witness account) of
ordinary people who have lived for 43 days under
an iron siege.”

The report states that the team’s Vrst visual

account of Srinagar as they drove out of the
airport was a deserted scene of closed shops,
hotels, schools, colleges, institutes and
universities.

Deserted street, men sit for a chat to relieve

their loneliness

Calling it a punitive mahaul (atmosphere), they

say that the picture of Kashmir that conjured
before their eyes was not the populist image
painted with a shikara, houseboat, lotuses and
the Dal Lake. It was of women – Zubeida,
Shamima, Khurshida – standing at the door of
their homes waiting with unblinking eyes for their
14, 15, 17, and 19-year-old sons, their last look
Vxed in their memory.

“We have been caged,” were words that echoed

everywhere.

Lights Out At 8 PM

Across all villages of the four districts, people

spoke of a ‘lights-out’ rule being imposed on
them by the forces. Lights had to be turned off
around 8 PM after Maghreb prayers.

In Bandipora, they saw a young girl who made the

mistake of keeping a lamp lit to study for her
exams hoping that her school might open soon.
Eventually, Army men angered by this breach
barged in and took away her father and brother
for questioning.

“What questions?”, she didn’t know and she

hasn’t dared to ask but her family hasn’t returned
since.

“We insist the men go indoors after 6 PM. If

absolutely necessary, the women go outside”,
Zarina, from a village near Bandipora district
headquarters said.

In the villages, where most toilets are placed

inside the makeshift-compounds but outside
living quarters, Zarina added that she couldn’t
even switch on her phone for light to take her
little girl to the toilet, because when light is
spotted, their men pay with their lives.

Privately-Owned Public
Transport, A Thing Of The Past

In Jammu and Kashmir, unlike the other states of

India, there are no metros or state-sanctioned
buses. Private companies run the everyday-
transportation within towns and cities for the
public. However, ever since the lockdown, the
report states that privately-owned public
transportation has been reduced to a memory.

People who had private cars took them out for

essential chores while women stood on
roadsides, jagging cars and bikes for lifts.
People stopped and helped out, the shared
helplessness of both sides became the unspoken
bond.

Little or no vehicles plying

Healthcare Handicapped By
The Communication Block

“I was on my bike going towards Awantipora

when a woman jagged me. On our way ahead,
my bike lurched on a speed breaker and she was
thrown off. I took her to the nearby hospital but
she went into a coma. I am a poor man how
could I pay for her treatment? How and who
could I inform?” a man cried.

At Lalla Ded Women’s Hospital in Srinagar,

several young women doctors expressed their
absolute frustration at the hurdles that had been
placed in their way since the abrogation of Article
370.

“There are cases where women cannot come in

time for deliveries because there are very few
ambulances and the few that are running are
stopped at bunkers on the way. This has resulted
in several cases of overdue deliveries that
produce babies with birth deformities. It is a
lifelong aliction, living death for parents”.

Conversely, the team was told that several

women were delivering babies prematurely due to
the stress and khauf (fear) in the present
condition.

“It feels like the government is strangling us and

then sadistically asking us to speak at the same
time,” a young woman doctor said.

A senior doctor from Bandipora Hospital told

them that people were coming from Kulgam,
Kupwara, and other districts with cases of mental
disorders and heart attacks.

Junior doctors desperately look for seniors, in

cases of emergencies, but there is no way of
reaching them on phone. If they are around the
hospital’s premises when an emergency rises,
“they run on the streets shouting, asking,
searching in sheer desperation.”

One orthopaedic doctor from SKIMS was stopped

at the army imposed blockade while he was
going for duty. He was held for 7 days without a
reason.

SaVa, in Shopian who had had cancer surgery,

said “I desperately need a check-up in case it has
recurred and the only way for me is to go to the
city, but I don’t know how I will get there. And if I
do, will my doctor be there?”

Ayushman Bharat, an internet-based scheme,

cannot be availed by doctors and patients since
the 4th of August.

A Valley Without Sons, With

Missing Children

“How do we know where they are? Our boys were

taken and snatched away from our homes. To
Vnd out, our men go to the police station, where
they are asked to go to the police headquarters”,
women with eyes longing for their sons, told the
team.

The fathers beg for rides from travellers and

manage to get to the suggested omces in search
of their boys. On the board in the omces are
names of ‘stone-pelters’ who have been lodged in
different jails of Agra, Jodhpur, Ambedkar and
Jhajjar.

A man lamenting his emotional and Vnancial

situation said, “Baji (elder sister), we are crushed.
A few of us who can beg and borrow, go
hundreds of miles only to be pushed around by
hostile jail guards in completely unfamiliar
cities.”

When fathers go to rescue their children they are

made to deposit money, anywhere between INR
20,000 to 60,000. “So palpable is their contempt
for Kashmiri youth that when there is the knock
on the door of a home, an old man is sent to open
it.”

“We hope and pray they will spare a buzurg but

they slaps all faces, regardless of whether they
are old or young, or even very young.”

A woman recounted how they came for her 22-

year-old son, but seeing a plaster on his hand,
they took away her 14-year-old instead.

One estimate of ‘missing boys’ given to the team

was of 13,000 since this lockdown.

Even young women complained of harassment

by the forces as they were constantly asked to
remove their niqabs and hijabs

Food Reserves Intentionally

Damaged

“They don’t even spare our rations. During

random checking of houses which occurs at odd
hours of the night, the army persons come in and
throw out the family”, a young man working as a
Special Police Omcer (SPO) told them.

“We keep a sizeable amount of rice, pulses,

edible oil in reserve but when we’re thrown out,
kerosene is mixed in the ration bins or koyla
(coal)”, a local said.

Bitterness Amongst The Local

Police And Populace

The fact-Vnding team spoke to a J&K policeman.

All of them have been stripped of their
commissioned guns and dandas.

“How do you feel, losing your guns?”, the team

asked him. “Good because we were always afraid
of them being snatched away and bad because
we have no means now to defend ourselves in a
shootout” he replied.

A woman security guard said, “The Indian

government wants to make it like Palestine. But
we, Kashmiris, will Vght”.

A young professional told us, “We want freedom.

We want neither India nor Pakistan. We will pay
any price for this. Ye Kashmiri khoon hai. Koi bhi
qurbani denge”.

Humiliated, Tired, But

Invigorated For Azaadi

The desire for azaadi (self-determination) was

inexorable. The team was told that the desolation
they have suffered due to the humiliation and
torture they have been subjected to since the
past 70 years, has reached a point of no return
after the abrogation of Article 370.

Some said that the move snapped their last tie

with India, even for those people who always
stood with the Indian State.

“So, what is the worth of us, the ordinary

Kashmiris in their eyes?” Kashmiris ask since all
their leaders have been booked under PSA or
placed under house arrest.

As the report concludes giving a vivid account of

the team’s experiences, they demand the
restoration of all communication lines in Kashmir
including internet and mobile networks,
restoration of Article 370 and 35 A,
demilitarisation, and initiation of the democratic
dialogue. Further, the fact-Vnding brigade
demands:

1. Withdrawal of the Army and

Paramilitary forces with
immediate effect

2. Cancellation of all cases and FIRs

with the release of all those,
especially the youth, who are under
custody and in jail since the
abrogation of Article 370

3. Initiation of a fair inquiry on the

allegations of widespread violence
and tortures unleashed by security
personnel.

4. Compensation to all those families

who lost their loved ones because
of non-availability of transportation
and absence of communication

With straightforward appeals in place, the report

ends quoting the Hindi poet Dushyant, artistically
connoting the way forward for Kashmir.

Ho gayi hai peerh parbat si pighalni chahiye

Iss Himalaya se koi Ganga nikalni chahiye

Also Read: “Government Has Discredited Itself

By Lying And Restricting Access,” Journalists In
Kashmir Raise Concerns Over Restrictions In
Valley

Contributors

Written by : Sanika Athavale

Edited by : Shweta Kothari

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PARTNER STORY

‘Phone Uthao, India Ko Padhao’

Initiative: What If You Could Just
‘Take A Call’ And Educate India?
Propelled by
Nihar Shanti Amla

Social progress, it is believed comes when

collective action is taken by the people. Many of
us in a way want to do something to give back to
the nation, to contribute in modest ways. But
more often than not, we do not know what to do
or where to begin. In such a scenario, what if
someone told you that you can now do a lot just
by taking a phone call and only for 10 minutes a
week.

Nihar Shanti Amla in its nationally launched

‘Phone Uthao India Ko Padhao’ program aims to
connect the educated urban adults to the
underprivileged children through just a phone
call- to teach them basic spoken English.
The #PhoneUthaoIndiaKoPadhao or ‘Take a call’
campaign gives the under-resourced and
underprivileged children the opportunity to talk to
urban volunteers who speak juent English in their
day to day lives.

“Phone Uthao India Ko Padhao” was born under

the ‘Paathshala Funwala’ umbrella, a parent
project of the brand when they realised that while
the kids could learn English through their free of
cost, IVR based modules, they couldn’t imbibe it
comprehensively because they lacked an
ecosystem where they could actually practise the
language. But the question always remains, ‘Why
English?’

Nihar Shanti Amla believes that English is widely

considered to be a marker of progress and in
most places, it also enhances employability.
However knowing English and speaking the
language are two very different things. They also
believe that education is the core foundation of
growth. In order to impart quality learning through
a medium that connects well with children, they
have been running multiple programmes under
the ‘Paathshala Funwala’ that started Vve years
ago and taught spoken English to kids in a fun
manner free of cost. Over the past few years,
‘Paathshala Funwala’ has led massive rural
outreach programmes that have positively
impacted more than 7500 villages with call
volumes nearing 8.5 lakh from 3 lakh unique
children in these villages in the past 1 year.

Besides, Nihar Shanti Amla, as a progressive

brand also works with Educate Girls (EG), an NGO
which provides quality education for all
underserved and marginalized girls by mobilizing
public, private and community resources thus
improving access to education, school quality
x
and achieving behavioural, social and economic
Stories that
transformation for alldeserve attention,
girls in India’s gender gap
delivered
districts thereby to an
creating your inbox!
India where all