Orphans
In Doda: Hapless Victims Of An Endless Conflict
By Yoginder Sikand
30 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
No
one seems to be in a position to offer even a rough estimate of the
total number of orphans in Doda. The largest district in Jammu and Kashmir
after Ladakh in terms of area, Doda has been racked by seemingly endless
violence in the last fifteen years. Several hundred people have lost
their lives in the violence so far in the area, mostly at the hands
of militants, although the number of deaths of civilians caused by the
armed forces is not insubstantial. There must, therefore, be several
thousand children in Doda who have, on account of the ongoing conflict
in the region, been left orphaned or without fathers, forced to fend
for themselves. In addition to these are, of course, a significant number
of children who have lost parents due to causes other than those related
to the ongoing conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.
An 'orphan', as the term
is generally used in Doda, is a child who has lost his or her father,
the family's principal bread-earner, although he or she may still have
his or her mother. Although the state claims to provide for some such
'orphans', the magnitude of the problem is so immense that only a small
proportion of these children gain any substantial or meaningful state
support to carry on with their lives. In the whole of Doda district,
which is larger than all the districts of the Kashmir Valley combined,
there are just two government-run, modestly-sized and poorly-managed
orphanages. To make matters even worse, local community-based organisations
have done precious little to address the plight of orphaned children.
The fact that there is just one privately-run orphanage in the entire
district, which caters to a modest number of eighteen children, is ample
evidence of this. While this dismal state of affairs owes much to neglect
both by the state as well as local community organisations, it also
reflects the fact that in Doda orphans are generally looked after by
their extended families, who are often reluctant to send them to live
in institutions elsewhere.
Unlike in the Kashmir Valley,
there are almost no well-organised, established and reliable NGOs in
the whole of Doda district. This explains, in part, the absence of organized
efforts to provide for the sizeable number of orphans in the district.
The few local groups that are trying, in their own modest ways, to help
orphaned children are hindered by lack of exposure and awareness of
possible government schemes for such children. Nor are they aware of
other NGOs outside Jammu and Kashmir that might be able to help them
in their work. None of these groups has any full-time staff or activists.
They are all run by businessmen, government employees or retired people,
who can provide only a very limited amount of time for social work.
One such group is the Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Foundation. It is one
of the oldest organizations working among orphans in the state of Jammu
and Kashmir, and runs several orphanages and schools in the Kashmir
Valley. Its work in Doda began four years ago, but, clearly, its achievements
have been modest. Mushtaq Faridi, who works with the Foundation in Doda,
tells me that its work in the district has, so far, consisted of sending
six orphan boys to orphanages run by the Foundation in Srinagar, although
this year not a single child has been sent. In addition, the Foundation
provides a monthly sum of two hundred rupees to some half a dozen children
from poor families and a stipend of seven hundred rupees to eight widows,
including a Hindu woman. The Foundation has also pitched in with small
amounts of money to help arrange for the marriage eight girls who have
lost their fathers, two of these being Hindus. That, in short, has been
the achievement of the Foundation in the last four years. Given the
magnitude of the problem of orphans and widows in Doda, Faridi admits
that this is just a drop in the ocean.
A group engaged in similar
sort of work is the Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Trust, which, like the
Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Foundation, has its headquarters in Srinagar.
The head of its Doda branch, Faruq Hussain, a local businessman, summarises
the Trust's work in Doda as follows: 'We have, so far, arranged for
two children from Doda to be put up in an orphanage in Srinagar. We
have provided free textbooks to one girl and marriage kits' to fourteen
girls from very poor families, including some orphans'.
I am curious to learn about
the 'marriage kits' and Hussain asks his assistant to show me a sample.
The assistant proudly displays before me a plastic suitcase which, when
opened, reveals an assortment of knick-knacks that a newly-wed woman
is expected to take with her to her martial home: two pairs of shalwar
kameez, a case containing sundry cosmetics, a handbag, a burqa (rarely
worn by Muslim women in Doda), and a pair of sandals. Each 'marriage
kit', Hussain tells me, is worth six thousand rupees.
The Jammu and Kashmir Trust
and the Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Foundation, were till early this year,
the only non-governmental organizations in the entire Doda district
working among orphaned children. Their work might seem modest, and their
methods and approach somewhat limited, restricted to passing out handouts
and benefiting a very small number of individuals. Clearly, a more activist,
rights- based approach is called for.
Presenting somewhat of a
departure from the limited vision and involvement of the Jammu and Kashmir
Trust and the Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Foundation is the Dar ul-Yatama
(translated as 'House for Orphans'), established this April in Doda
town by the newly-formed Al-Khair Foundation. The only privately-run
orphanage in the entire Doda district, it is managed by a committee
consisting of local activists and concerned individuals. Its chairman,
Maulvi Aftab Ahmad Khokhar, is the Imam of the Astana mosque. Interestingly,
the mosque is built on a piece
of land donated some centuries ago by a Hindu Rajput family to the noted
Sufi saint, Shah Fariduddin Baghdadi, who is buried in the neighbouring
town of Kishtwar, and who married a woman belonging to the same family.
Maulvi Khokhar sees his work
as inspired by a socially engaged vision of Islam, by what he calls
'love for humanity, fear of God and concern for the hereafter'. 'Many
people here mistakenly think that zakat and other forms of charity should
be distributed to poor individuals in cash or to madrasas', he says
when asked why there is no other orphanage but his in the whole of the
sprawling Doda district. 'But', he adds, 'Islam enjoins the helping
of the poor in more institutionalized ways as well, like running orphanages
or setting up schools for both modern as well as religious education
for the poor.'
That point is something that
Maulvi Khokhar says he often touches on his Friday sermons in the mosque
and in lectures before community gatherings. 'Often, people forget the
social dimensions of religion, focusing on mere rituals instead. They
might spend lakhs of rupees on building fancy mosques but might do little,
if anything, for the poor', he complains.
'The problem', an elderly
man present during our conversation interrupts to add, 'is compounded
by the fact many people are reluctant to give donations to NGOs because
many such organizations are simply money-making ventures'. This, he
explains, causes people to lose faith in even genuine groups seeking
to do their own share of good.
As I enter the neat and well-maintained
hall of the Dar ul-Yatama I am introduced to the children, all neatly
attired, cheerful and polite. They sit in a semi-circle around an avuncular
ustad, reciting their Quranic lessons aloud. There are eighteen children
here, aged between eight and sixteen. They come from various parts of
Doda, from villages high up in the mountains. All of them have lost
their fathers-some of them having been killed by militants, others by
the army, and yet others having died of old age or in accidents. All
the children are from desperately poor families.
The Dar ul-Yatama serves
as a home for these children, who would otherwise have been left to
a bleak future in their remote mountain hamlets. They are all enrolled
in a local private school. Their school fees are waived off, and they
are provided free boarding and lodging in the orphanage. In the evenings,
after they return from school, they receive religious education classes
from the ustad and his colleagues.
Like others of their age,
the boys at the Dar ul-Yatama have their own dreams of the future, reflecting
a ray of hope amidst the despair that is life for such children in Doda.
Some want to become doctors, engineers and lawyers, the three most prestigious
occupations in Doda, while others want, as they put it, 'to serve the
cause of the faith'. One of the boys, a particularly bright child, tells
me that he desires to be a journalist.
The Dar ul-Yatama is a Muslim-run
institution, but its doors, Maulvi Khokhar says, are open to all communities.
He points to a lad, quite indistinguishable from the rest of his peers,
and tells me that his name is Vijay. Vijay is from a Brahmin family
from the village of Ugadh and lost his father in a road accident. I
ask the boy how he feels living as the only Hindu in the Dar ul-Yatama.
He smiles and says shyly, 'I feel very much at home and all the other
boys are my friends. They never make me feel different'.
Maulvi Khokhar says that
he hopes to get more Hindu boys to join the Dar ul-Yatama soon. There
is no Hindu-run orphanage in the entire Doda district, he informs me,
although Hindus account for almost half of Doda's population. 'Islam
says that we should serve the needy irrespective of their religion and
so we welcome Hindu children here if their guardians will allow them',
he goes on to explain. He refers to the recent massacre of almost two
dozen Hindus in the village of Kulhand near Doda by unidentified gunmen
and says that he is in touch with some Hindu families living there.
'We are trying to get some children who lost their fathers in that tragic
attack to come and live in the Dar ul-Yatama next year', he reveals.
Maulvi Khokhar tells me of the plans that he and his associates in the
Al-Khair Foundation have for the future. They hope to expand their work
to include providing relief to victims of the ongoing violence in Doda,
especially to widows, only some of whom presently receive a small stipend
from the Department of Social Welfare. They also plan to increase the
intake of the Dar ul-Yatama to cater to the large number of orphans
in the district, whom both the state as well as community organizations
seem to have left to their own fate.
'Innocent people continue
to be killed in Jammu and Kashmir every day, leaving children orphaned
and women widowed', says a member of the managing committee of the Dar
ul-Yatama as he accompanies me out of the premises. 'The least we can
do', he adds somberly as he takes me by the arm, 'is to bring some hope
to these hapless children, whose fate has been sealed by forces outside
their control'.
*The Dar ul-Yatama can be contacted on the following address:
Maulvi Aftab Ahmad Khokhar,
Chairman,
Dar ul-Yatama,
Mohalla Faridiya,
Near Masjid Nagari,
Doda 1822202.
Jammu and Kashmir
The author works with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia
Millia Islamia, New Delhi.