Yasmeen Khan
Once acknowledged as Paradise on earth , Jammu and Kashmir has transited its history into a heaven of disappeared, raped, mass graves and most importantly a playground of orphans.
During a one day workshop on ‘Children and Print Media in Jammu and Kashmir’, a UK-based child rights organization, ‘Save the Children’ revealed an estimated number of orphans in Jammu and Kashmir is more than 200,000.
As per the group, the total number 37 percent orphans were due to the ongoing armed conflict in the state. “An estimated population of orphans in Jammu and Kashmir both due to conflict and natural death of parents is around 2,15,000,” Sharief Bhat, state head of Save the Children, was quoted by Kashmir Monitor.
The news paper also reported that Bhat said that out of these 2, 15,000 orphans, 15 per cent live in orphanage homes across the state. ”It is good for these children to be in orphanages as they get education and other skills there but at the same time we need to rehabilitate them for which we as a society have to play an important role,” Bhat was quoted.
There is a big list of ‘half orphans’ in Kashmir whom parents have been disappeared during the saga of political struggle and they are living their lives in a twilight zone. Such children cannot be pronounced as orphans as they are still unaware that whether their parents are alive or dead.
According to the report available on the website of Save the Children organization reveals that 37 per cent of the orphans lost one or both parents due to the conflict while 55 percent were orphaned due to the natural death of parents and remaining eight percent due to other reasons.
Bhat also said that there are people who in the name of consultancies are luring children and sending them to outside states. ”Children are being trafficked outside state for child labour, their vital organs are being sold, experiments of new medicines are being done on them and of course for sexual abuse,” he said.
The history and figures of Kashmir are totally different. Along with the killings of near hundred thousand civilians, 8000 disappearances, ironically, Kashmir has been overloaded by orphans and half orphans.
According to a report, The failure of the state has forced 80% of the orphans in the valley to quit their studies after matriculation due to extreme poverty and lack of quality education in charitable orphanages.
These orphan children who are often used as shoulders by the political parties to gain favors from people are in a quest of ‘Azaadi’. An azaadi (freedom) to have quality education, access to their dreams, to live their life without fear and depression and an ‘Azadi’ from innocent killings and disappearances of their birth givers whom they need the most at this age.