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Militancy Toll; J&K Women
Pay Heavy Price

By Syed Junaid Hashmi

27 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org

JAMMU, Mar 27: She was raped, humiliated, tortured, illegally detained, threatened at gun point and molested. No one heard her cries and even today, few heads roll, when her rights are desecrated. She continues to face the consequences for giving birth to young people who resorted to guns without seeking permission from her.

Seventeen years of turmoil has not only ruined Jammu Kashmir economically but has turned the state in to a land of widows and orphans. Various human rights organizations put the figure of orphans at twenty-five thousand and that of widows around six thousand. Various organizations contradict the figure and say that it may be more.

These poverty struck women have nothing to feed their children. A number of insecurities hunt them in the absence of their husband. Their husbands went missing and they could not even wail over their missing husbands. Their children were killed in front of their eyes and yet they are doing rounds of the government offices to prove that their children were killed in cold blood.

The young widows and teenaged orphan girls are facing more problems due to their youth as they are always at danger of getting molested or raped. It is matter of concern that most of the married women face the problem of miscarriages, which is one of the fastest growing problem in the rural and border areas of state. Reasons could be many but with health department virtually unaware of this new problem, speculating anything might be problematical.

Amidst this scenario, women empowerment should have assumed highest significance. Unfortunately, persistent political uncertainty in the state has miserably failed in addressing this area of paramount significance.

It is important to mention here that 10 years have passed since the democratic process began in Jammu and Kashmir but rape of women, disappearance, illegal detention, threatening at gun point, molestation, and shocking raids by security forces and by unknown gunmen have been day to day phenomena in Kashmir valley and in various parts of Jammu province especially in border areas.

To cite some examples, in the year 1991, Indian army raped 30 women in Kunan- Poshpura in Kupwara aged between 18 to 85 years. 15 years have passed since the incident took place; neither justice nor compensation has knocked at the doors of these unfortunate mothers and daughters. While separatists address their plight by stating that they have lost their honour for a greater cause, state government orders an inquiry which remains inconclusive and guilty get rewards for having fought militancy tooth and nail.

To add salt to the wounds, legislators in the recently concluded budget session debated human rights violations threadbare forcing the state government to order judicial probe into all the cases of human rights violations but none bothered to speak a few words about the cases of human rights violations involving women. A bill for giving reservation to women is doing rounds of all the political circles in the country, but a castigatory law for empowering the female folk of the country is not even being talked about.

Scholars and intellectuals across the state are of the view that if government made laws like POTA, TADA and AFSPA for fighting militancy, why is it reluctant to design laws on the same pattern for the female folk living in violence hit areas. They further say that few could empower women unless they themselves decide to get empowered.

"It is highly unfortunate that the approach continues to be parochial. Both the Central and State government must realize the importance of giving a healing touch to female folk of Jammu and Kashmir," said a Jammu university scholar Vivyeta Sharma.

She added that it is horrendous to speak of the trauma that women in Jammu and Kashmir have faced during the last seventeen years. "Honest efforts to empower women have never been made. Law makers must make provisions which could lessen the vulnerability of females living in violence hit areas," added Vivyeta.

Not only Vivyeta, many other scholars stressed for making laws which could empower women in Jammu and Kashmir and save her honour even when the situation is adverse. "Our female legislators should have brought some kind of legislation which could give extraordinary powers to the courts to decide cases of molestation, rape, illegal detention and threat perception to women within days of the occurrence of the incident, but unfortunately, they have failed in doing their duty," said Niharika, another Scholar.

 

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