Towards a Khush-haal Kashmir
Madhu Kishwar: we can and must make a contribution to a healing touch in Jammu and Kashmir.

March 2003 - Ever since the successful conduct of State assembly elections in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (J&K), we have been following carefully the steps towards providing a "healing touch" being taken by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti. She has by all accounts played a key role in winning over a large section of the estranged Kashmiri population to vote for peace and good governance. At a time when leading male politicians got immobilised due to the fear of the gun, Mehbooba went from village to village to lend a sympathetic ear to people's legitimate grievances, to intervene on their behalf and to give them a sense that someone cared about the pain and suffering of families victimised by the terrorist violence or brutalised by State agencies.

I spent three days in J&K with Mehbooba and Mufti Saheb in the last week of December. I accompanied them to Rajouri and Surankote in the Poonch sector where they went to offer their condolences and financial assistance to families who were victims of terrorist violence. At all three stops we made, it was an eye opening experience to see the huge numbers of people who came out to present their grievances to them with hope writ large on their faces. The results of this election have brought about a dramatic change in the political mood in J & K. For example, when Mehbooba and Mufti Saheb went to condole with the family of the PDP MLA who was recently murdered, the family insisted that their second son should be nominated to fight for the seat that fell vacant on account of the murder.

They decided the seat should be occupied by a member of their family even though they had already lost their elder son in fighting the elections. None of the groups we met with raised any political slogans. Instead, people emphasised the need for employment in villages and towns where hordes of unemployed youth are clamouring for jobs. They also seemed desperate for improvement in roads, health centers, education and other civic necessities. Everywhere, the Chief Minister emphasised the need to defeat terrorism so that the government could focus more on development work. Nowhere was this message received with hostility or scepticism. The political turmoil of the last decade and a half has not only led to a collapse of the tourism industry in Kashmir but there has been a severe breakdown of most service oriented institutions of the Central government such as post offices and banks. Mufti Saheb is trying hard to persuade the Central government to revitalise these institutions and create job opportunities for educated unemployed youth of J&K. He has also visited several metropolitan centres and addressed meetings of business chambers urging them to make some space for Kashmiri youth in the corporate sector and invited leading businessmen to invest in J&K.

Sharing Their Pain

Kashmir has a special place in the hearts of most Indians who cannot imagine the maps of India without J&K. And yet, very few of us have cared to pay heed to the suffering and anger of its people.

During the past thirteen years Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have been drenched in blood. The air has constantly resounded with the roar of guns. Hidden underneath that roar are the sounds of the sobs of the children who have not only been orphaned but also mutilated emotionally and physically. Some had parents killed in front of their eyes, their bodies lay in pools of blood, dead eyes open in shock and pain. These and other gruesome images appear and reappear in the children's dreams. In them they see militants with guns, government soldiers with guns. The last decade and a half have wrecked innumerable families, witnessed the brutal murder and maiming of several thousand men, women and children, and rendered numerous women, children and old people destitute after the main bread winner of the family was killed or maimed for life. To quote: Rubia Sayeed "Whatever the label on those who carry the guns, the end result is the same. Many of these children and elderly remain in shock; many are destitute. It is hard to know if the orphans of militants are worse off when their fathers are alive but absent from the home, living on the fringes of society as outlaws, or when their fathers are dead. No one lends a helping hand to them, no one shows any compassion."

Government Initiatives

The new coalition government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of People's Democratic Party (PDP) seems to be trying hard to heal the wounds and bridge the communal divide that mars the social and political fabric of J&K. There are very few politicians today who are willing to take the risks that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is taking in braving the terrorist guns in an effort to restore democracy and peace with dignity in J&K. Even more important, the Chief Minister is trying hard to build a national consensus on how to resolve the impasse on J&K. He is soliciting the cooperation of all political parties in these difficult and sensitive effort. Though Mehbooba Mufti, the CMs his daughter was very deserving of a cabinet berth, she has chosen to stay out just so that she can focus more on her live personal contact with people and attend to their problems and grievances without a whole army of officials acting as a barrier between her and the people, as inevitably happens when a person takes charge of a ministry.

The country owes a debt of gratitude to the people of J&K for having put in power a politician who is sincerely trying to rejuvenate the economy of the State and also pay close attention to the problems of his people. One of the important electoral promises the PDP made to the people of J&K is that they would try to help rehabilitate families who have been wrecked as a fallout of terrorist violence. The new State government is currently offering Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the families of those killed by terrorists or those who are hapless victims of the operations carried out by security agencies.

This is an important gesture but not enough to rehabilitate shattered families. More important, there is a backlog of thousands of families whose lives were devastated before the new government initiated their "healing touch" policy.

Political Solution Primary

The most important task has to be performed at the political level. One successful election should not make us complacent. The Pak-inspired terrorist violence can only be countered if the Central Government makes steadfast efforts to bring about an honourable settlement of the Kashmir issue, ensures that innocent people are not brutalised in the name of curbing terrorism and puts a determined end to further human rights abuses by making the security agencies more professional and less ham-handed in their conduct.

We as citizens must find appropriate mechanisms to urge the government as well as the leaders of political parties not to let partisan considerations come in the way of determined efforts to restore peace and democracy in J&K.

Help in Healing Wounds

However, the task of healing the wounds of such families in particular, and the Kashmiri people in general cannot be performed by the government alone - no matter how well-meaning. If we want the people of J&K to feel an integral part of India, they must experience the care and concern of their fellow-citizens. While a long term political solution may take a while to materialise, in the interim, generous help will ease some of the pain and may hasten the healing process. We need to show through concrete gestures that we share their pain and appreciate their legitimate grievances, if the level of estrangement due to misunder-standing is to be brought down and if we want to contribute to creating the preconditions for enduring peace in Kashmir. Towards this end, we are working closely with Mehbooba Mufti to work out a comprehensive plan of action. The UMEED TRUST she is setting up in collaboration with MANUSHI aims to achieve the following :

• Lessen the emotional and political divides that have grown between various religious communities and regional groups in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

• Provide assistance to families victimised by terrorist or state violence and border shelling, especially children and women left in vulnerable circumstances due to the death or disappearance of the main breadwinners in their families.

• Provide legal aid to those who have been implicated in false cases.

• Help in the rehabilitation of rape victims as well as those maimed or handicapped for life due to torture by terrorists or security agencies.

• Promote educational and cultural activities that will help cultivate respect for human rights and women's rights and strengthen democratic institutions and values.

• Explore and make available new employment opportunities for those without jobs and provide other adequate sources of regular income.

• Widen the horizon of young people in J&K by arranging for group visits of young people to other places in India in cooperation with local organisations who will arrange for their stay with local families.

• Undertake research and investigations on ways to bring dynamism into the economy of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and bring about a balanced and mutually beneficial economic partnership among different regions in J&K.

• Promote special programmes for the economic and social development of backward and disadvantaged communities.

• Provide a non-partisan forum for discussion and debate on important issues and challenges faced by the people, and explore peaceful means and strategies for conflict resolution in the State.

• Build bridges of communication and understanding between the people of J & K and the rest of India.

• Provide legal aid to poor and vulnerable families and initiate public interest litigation aimed towards necessary legal reform to strengthen democratic rights in the State.

• Help build effective institutions for promoting education and providing adequate health care facilities for vulnerable groups in neglected areas.

• Promote a culture of social equality with a special focus on gender equality and bring about necessary reforms in all those laws that discriminate against any person or group on account of their gender, religion, caste or regional identity.

• Provide a forum for consideration of the changes required in the familial, cultural, social, political and economic functioning of society that would substantially eliminate the exploitation of women, minorities, the poor and other disadvantaged groups.

• Explore ways in which people concerned with expanding the horizons of individual freedom can work towards democratising the decision-making processes within their communities.

• Encourage and support closer cooperation among individuals and groups working for human rights, especially those who make a major effort to expand women's rights.

• Encourage inquiries that will counter the distortion of our past heritage to improve our understanding of contemporary society with its rich cultural and social diversity.

• Explore ways to facilitate the dialogue among the diverse groups in J&K toward peaceful settlement of their disputes.