KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: IMPACT OF KASHMIR CONFLICT ON WOMEN

Kashmir conflict has been the most potent existential threat to inhabitants living in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The conflict spanning over a period of over seven decades had inflicted a far-reaching impact on every sphere of life of the Kashmiris settled within and outside the disputed territory. However, being the most vulnerable segment of the society women have been the worst sufferers of this deadly conflict.

Since 1989, the massive troop buildup in the occupied territory by New Delhi has impacted women more than any other segment of the society. Especially, the highest troop’s concentration in densely populated areas of the region and fast spreading structures of violence in the shape of sprawling army camps in cities, towns and villages had created a fertile ground for violence that has left behind a harrowing legacy in the person of widows and half widows. Life of a Kashmiri woman, as a mother, as a daughter, a sister and a wife has been shattered by this continued conflict so much and so that today thirty-six percent of women suffer anxiety disorder. Many of them, as said, have been widowed, displaced, molested, gang-raped, and even brutally tortured, harassed and humiliated in jails and interrogation centers. Besides bearing the brunt of violence a good majority of Kashmiri women have lost their kith and kin during the ongoing conflict. Pertinently, the prolonged conflict has caused widespread death and destruction in Kashmir region, during the past 30 years. According to the Indian government more than 50,000 people were killed in violence but independent sources put the death toll at over 100 thousand [1]. Of them a sizable number of Kashmiri youths have been subjected to extra-judicial killing.

It has also been estimated that around 50,000 women has lost their partners. Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) that has been engaged in documenting enforced disappearances in Kashmir since 1989 has revealed that more than 8000 people have disappeared in Kashmir as a result of violence, which diametrically varies from the official figures of 3,000 to 4,000 put forth by the government of India. [2].

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Rape, outrage of modesty and other forms of violence against women has been one of the deadly aspects of the long drawn conflict that has inexpressibly shattered the lives of women living under a constant threat of rape and sexual assault from the Indian army.

Rights defenders have time and again raised their concerns over the rising incidents of violence in the restive region and demanded immediate end to what they called a crime of war. The rights activists who had investigated incidents of abuse in Kashmir established the bitter truth that the so-called Indian security forces were using sexual violence against women as a weapon of war to punish, intimidate, coerce, humiliate and degrade the women folk.

In October 1992, representatives from Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) traveled to Kashmir to document rape and other human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war by Indian security forces. They also investigated incidents of abuse by armed militant groups who have also committed rape and other attacks on civilians. PHR and Asia Watch condemn these crimes as violations of international human rights and humanitarian law [3 ].

The mass-rape of scores of women in Kunan Poshpora village in Handwara in 1991 by the Indian occupation forces and rape and murders case of Shopian, and Islamabad (Annantnag) serve as the most shocking example of nightmarish ordeal of the Kashmiri women.

RAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR

Human rights agencies working in the region assert that since the onset of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in 1988, rape has been leveraged as a 'weapon of war' by Indian security forces comprising the Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security personnel [4].

Since the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been a no-go-zone for international human rights watchdogs it is difficult to ascertain reliable statistics on rape in Kashmir and the intensity of violence women of Kashmir have gone through over the years but existing evidence suggest that this shameful practice, which amounts to war crime is frequent and widespread. In a statement in Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly in October 2013, then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah admitted to registering more than 5000 cases of rape since 1989 [5] .

A report based on women’s testimonies from the Kashmir Valley confirmed that women were targeted by security forces both as punishment for their support of the struggle and as means of breaking the movement [6]. Most rape cases, according to the same report, have occurred during cordon-and-search operations According to a 1996 HRW report, security personnel in Kashmir have used "rape as a counterinsurgency tactic". Inger Skjelsbæk a Norwegian psychologist and gender studies scholar says that the pattern of rape in Kashmir is that when soldiers enter civilian residences, they kill or evict the men before raping the women inside [7].

EFFECTS OF CONFLICT ON WOMEN’S HEALTH

The Conflict as mentioned above has affected the women folk in Kashmir in many different ways. Besides causing severe disruption in their education, job opportunities, and overall development the ongoing conflict has taken a heavy toll, wreaking havoc on women’s physical and mental health. It has been observed that there has been a phenomenal increase in psychiatric morbidity due to the continued conflict in the region while on the other hand the sense of insecurity was greater among girls and young women who have become virtual prisoners in their own houses because of the continued threat of abduction and sexual abuse from the Indian army found present at every nook, corner and cranny of the state.

The seven-month long military clampdown and information blockade imposed on Kashmir by the government of India on 5^th August 2019 has further added to the miseries of Kashmiri women. Nusrat Sidiq, a Kashmir-based journalist covering human rights issues says that years of conflict have already fuelled alarming levels of untreated mental illness in Kashmir but the months’ long crippling clampdown is adding to civilian trauma in the disputed region [8].

A study published by IMHANS and ActionAid has confirmed an alarming increase in levels of mental health disorders in the population of Kashmir. The survey says that 11.3% of the respondents in the valley were suffering from a mental health disorder which is significantly higher than the Indian “national average”. Mental health is determined by a variety of factors and one of the major factors has been the increasing turmoil across the world [9]. However, a recent report reveals that 1.8 million Kashmiri adults suffer from some form of mental distress. Another detailed report released by MSF Doctors without Borders on mental health in Kashmir, concluded that half of all residents of the valley have "mental health problems. It stated that 50 percent of women and 37 percent of men are likely to suffer from depression; 36 percent of women and 21 percent of men have a probable anxiety disorder; and 22 percent of women and 18 percent of men suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The report was the third of its kind on mental health carried out by MSF. Its first two were in Iraq and Syria [10].

A team of 5 women who visited Kashmir soon after the Indian government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status narrated a spine chilling account of the horrible situation in Kashmir. The report titled “Women’s voice: A Fact Finding Report on Kashmir”, said, “The humiliation and torture they have suffered for 70 years has reached a point of no return”. Referring to overwhelming levels of stress and fear in the society the report said that the situation in the region was so grim that the women are delivering babies prematurely due to the stress and (fear) in the present condition [11]. Quoting a senior doctor from North Kashmir the report further said that there was alarming uptick in mental disorders and heart attacks.

PLIGHT OF HALF WIDOWS

The irony of Kashmiri Half-widows is yet another highly disconcerting aspect of this conflict that has so far produced many half-widows whose number has swelled to over thousands during the recent years. They are the ones who went through more pain and agony than other women whose near and dear ones have fell to the bullets of the Indian army. Caught in a cobweb of uncertainty this ill-fated lot of Kashmiri women named after as Half-widows are forced to live even a more painful, agonizing and excruciating life as their seems no end to their nerve-wreaking struggle of tracing their husbands who have been subjected to forced disappearances by the army. According to publically announced reports the number of half-widows in the Kashmir valley is between 2,000 and 2,500 [12] but as per independent sources the number could be much higher.

A feature authored by a Kashmir based journalist published in Ajazeera says, “The biggest dilemma faced by the half widows is that in the absence of their bread winners, they have to rely on their in-laws or parents for their economic need with their property and custody rights undetermined. ... A widow without children gets one-fourth. A half-widow, till her husband is declared dead, gets nothing” [13].

THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

Armed conflicts have had devastating impacts on the socio-political environment of the people with extreme impacts on the lives of women in terms of economy. It is a worldwide phenomenon and Kashmir being a hotbed of violence and insecurity for several years now is no exception to this rule. The years’ long conflict hit hard to the women in Kashmir particularly those who left alone to sustain their families after losing their husbands to war. And when women lose their husbands, young girls lose their brothers and children their parents to war, they literally lose the family breadwinners. In societies like Kashmir where the welfare of women totally depend on their relationship to men, widows, unfortunately, are often left without the means to provide for themselves and their children.

Given the region’s social structure, a sizable number of these women are housewives, aged between 35 and 55 years. Almost half of them had only primary education, with little or no prospect of doing jobs; under these circumstances it is really a herculean task for women to withstand responsibilities and requirements of their dependents.

A news report published by Anadolu Agency (AA) while highlighting financial problems faced by destitute women in Kashmir points to widows’ struggle of shouldering the double tragedy of feeding their children and marrying off their daughters [14].

REFERENCES:

1. https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/08/world/kashmir-fast-facts/index.html

2. https://apdpkashmir.com/

3. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/INDIA935.PDF

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_Kashmir_conflict

5. https://books.google.com.pk/book bychitralekha.pdf.

6. https://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJPSD/PDF/2017/May/Maqbool.pdf

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_Kashmir_conflict

8. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/12/23/Kashmir-conflict-mental-health

9. https://www.actionaidindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Mental-Health-Illness-in-the-Valley-Final-Report-Web.pdf

10. https://www.msfindia.in/msf-scientific-survey-45-kashmiri-population-experiencing-mental-distress/

11. http://sacw.net/article14169.html