A humanitarian issue
In 2010 the Omar Abdullah led government offered a scheme for all those who had crossed over to Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) for arms training to come back to their native place and lead normal lives.
At least 450 Kashmiri men, who had crossed the Line of Control for arms training from time to time since 1990, returned to the Valley under the rehabilitation policy. These men who had gone to PaK had got married and most of them had families who too migrated to Kashmir.
Under the rehabilitation policy announced by the then government in 2010, the returnees were promised a monthly stipend or honorarium besides a skill development training to the youth who returned after deciding to shun gun and live a normal life.
It has been nine years since they landed in Kashmir under the rehabilitation policy, but there has been no end to their woes ever since. The children of these people were denied admissions in schools for being born in PaK and the fathers too faced an uphill task as no one was willing to hire them for work.
The promises made to the returnees and their families fell apart as no official documents and ration cards were provided to them so that their life could be made easier. The harassment by security agencies including the police also took their toll as most of the returnees had to face a tough ordeal while dealing with the security establishment.
The situation as of now is very chaotic for the families of these men who have returned back and more so for those who women who have for one or the other reason been divorced by their husbands here.
A rough survey suggests that more than 50 such women are living in despair as they have been divorced by their husbands owing to various issues and these women, some of them with their children, are living a desperate life with no help being provided to them from any quarter.
These women have been from the past several months demanding to be provided with travel documents so that they can travel back to their parents and try to lead their lives in peace.
The government has so far been ignorant to the demands of these women as the policy that was announced to get them back to their native land has been a miserable failure and no follow up to the promises was ever made by the authorities as well.
The situation is worrisome as no one is willing to listen to their woes, though their demands are simple. Either these women should be given a safe passage to cross over to the other side or the state government should rehabilitate them as promised in the policy announced in 2010.
But since none of this seems happening right now, the women have once again come out on roads and have now sought the intervention of Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Imran Khan to get them out of trouble.
KV Network
