At the peak of 2010 unrest, Union government initiated a policy that would help students from J&K to study in major educational institution in plains. Almost half a decade after the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme, Tasvur Mushtaq offers the details of scheme’s successes and failures

Representational Picture

Almost a year ago, Kohlis of Panjtirthi, Jammu were jubilant. Ajay Kohli, their only son was selected for admission in a prestigious college under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) – a scholarship program meant for J&K students. Today the family is disappointed and Ajay is heartbroken. His only hope is a promise that governor’s advisors made to him after he met them in his last ditch effort to save his career.

Belonging to a poor family, Ajay was selected for a BSc course in Christian Medical College, Vellore, a college offering MBBS courses, under the Prime Minister’s scheme. With selection letter in pocket, he wasted no time to reach the college. He was on the road soon. The college was not offering this course at all.

Apparently some babu in the central government had wrongly mixed courses and colleges and passed on the list without giving much thought.  Realizing this, governor’s advisor raised the issue immediately with the relevant quarters in Delhi. “They have assured help in getting the college changed, if not the course,” Ajay told Kashmir Life.

Ajay is not alone. There are many students selected for this scholarship in last five years. Some were benefitted but many others either left their courses midway or did not find the allotted stream suitable enough to join.

The scheme has seen many highs and lows since its implementation in 2011-12. It ran into rough weather mainly for two reasons; government’s failure to release payments in time and fear of violence against J&K students studying outside their home state. In certain cases of student unrest, the incidents snowballed into political controversies as they led to rustication of many J&K students.

Envisaged as a Rs. 1200 crore initiative by Delhi to possibly ‘mainstream’ J&K youth, PMSS was started on the recommendations of an expert committee constituted by the Prime Minister on August 18, 2010. The objective of the scheme was to “enhance employment opportunities in J&K and to formulate jobs’ plan involving the public and private sectors.”

In order to gauge its effectiveness and to analyze how far it was beneficial to students, HRD Ministry assigned a ‘mid-term study’ to National University of Educational Planning and Administration. The study covering 703 students studying in twenty six institutions of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has flagged various concerns while assessing the effectiveness of the scheme.

The scheme started in 2011-12 by making available 5000 scholarships annually to

J&K students to pursue various courses.

Under the scheme the beneficiaries are eligible for receiving yearly tuition fee up to Rs 30,000 for general degree course; up to Rs 1.25 lakh for engineering course and up to Rs 3.00 lakhs for MBBS and BDS courses. Besides, hostel fees and incidental charges upto Rs 1.00 lakh are provided for all categories of courses.

Students with a family income of not more than Rs 6.00 lakh, appearing for the Class XII or equivalent exam and seeking to pursue education in institutes located outside J&K, are eligible for the scholarships. Also, there is an internal earmarking of scholarships for SC, ST and OBC categories as per the quota prescribed for J&K.

Scholarship renewal is based on the good conduct and prescribed attendance. Students failing to get promoted to the next class / level continue to get the scholarship in the following year, subject to the condition that if the student fails second time, scholarship would stop.

Dr C Rangarajan

The report provides some interesting information about the PMSSS ‘success’. In 2011-12, for example, it reports that “due to unawareness among the people of state,” only 38 students (0.76 %) were awarded the scholarships out of the total 5000 scholarships available.

In 2012-13, the percentage improved as out of total 6,108 applications received, 61.80 % (3562) got selected in different courses.  In that year, the engineering courses were opted by 58.91 percent of the students while other 10 percent of the total eligible students were selected for medical courses.

In the following year, out of 6726 applicants, 3747 (68.17 %) were found eligible and awarded scholarships. September 2014 floods, however, proved to be a dampener. Out of total 9371 applications received that year, only 22.43 per cent (2102) got scholarship. In medical stream alone, “more than 90 percent of the seats under medical category were vacant,” the report adds. In the academic year, 2015-16, 3742 students have been awarded scholarships.

The government continued adding institutions for admissions under the scheme. The number of institutions was 335 in 2012-13, 476 in 2013-14 and 1849 in 2014-15.

Since the scheme does not cover any institution from J&K, the study found that one of issues faced by students is that “students going out of J&K to pursue general degree courses come back citing issues like regional language being the medium of instruction and major problem faced bygirl students is that of hostel facility.” State officials suggested that “students and parents should know all the formalities of the Scheme before admission.”

Interestingly, even as the scheme boasts of providing 5000 annual scholarships, most of the scholarships, 4500 to be precise, are provided for general courses and only 250 each for medical and engineering courses. Since pursuing a general course within J&K is in any case cost effective for the students, most of them do not join the colleges outside J&K even after getting scholarships. The report rightly observes that, “students are more interested in professional courses instead of General degree courses” and recommends that “the number of seats in professional courses may be increased.”

This is further corroborated by the data provided by AICTE which implements the scheme. It shows that in 2015-16, out of 3742 students, 1629 were allotted provisional admission letters for engineering and technology courses and 2113 for general courses. Out of these 1629, the number of students finally seeking admissions to engineering colleges was 900. In case of general courses, however, only 250 of the 2113 selected students took admissions.

The report reveals lack of awareness among the students about the scheme. Out of 100 students of SP College, Srinagar interviewed, only 10 were aware about the scheme. Those who were aware said that the “application procedure was slow and no proper information was available”. “Counseling centre was far and considerable financial constraints were faced in visiting these Centers”, the report says adding that, ‘abject poverty’ is one of the reasons for not attending counseling centers! The report also attributes slow takeoff of the scheme to low family incomes. It concludes that “the average size of the family has average income…and they do not want to spend it over education and instead want it to be spent on increasing the means of production…”

The respondents suggested the scholarship procedure should be revised and the list of colleges should be prepared on the basis of merit list. More awareness should be created among students from far-flung areas. Special provisions to encourage girls should be made byproviding a separate merit list and counseling centers. The respondents also highlighted the problems faced by them “while applying for admission to colleges”. These included, “colleges asking them to pay fees and donations, chosen branch and institution not being allotted, non-cooperative college administration, fund given in advance to institutes, delay in receiving of scholarship,lack of awareness about the fee structure etc.”

Many students reported that “in the event of delay in Scholarships, students had to regularly visit AICTE office and they were also threatened by the college authorities in the form of imposing fines and not allowing them to sit for exams leading to mental harassment.”  In many cases the students ‘did not know the reason for non-renewal of scholarship.’

The institutional heads, on the other hand, are skeptical “about the fact that scholarship amount should be disbursed into students’ accounts.”  They feel that, “since the institution does not charge tuition, university and hostel fees in advance therefore, many students may not come back to clear their fees / dues when the scholarship amount is disbursed to their accounts.”

One serious concern flagged by the study was of corruption. The report revealed that “while applying for the scholarship, students disclosed that some of them were asked for donations, while some paid money to NGOs and private counselor.”

The report concludes that the scheme has largely benefitted students in chasing their dreams despite a few loopholes and security related issues. It says that the students want that the “scheme should be continued and extended to the master’s level.”

In order to make the implementation of the scheme more effective and transparent, the report suggests procedures should be made online and scholarships should be given on performance basis. No involvement of third party /  NGOs should be permitted and admissions should be made only after thoroughly checking eligibility with the facility of choosing the institutions available to students. It also suggests publishing of the scheme details, “at least six months in advance in all schools and list of eligible candidates in local newspapers to make the system more transparent.”

Thanks to all expense paid Super-50 initiative, public school students are now all set to take any competition head on. Saima Bashir reports

For years posh Parraypora in Srinagar is known as hub of private coaching centres. These private coaching centres used to decide the future of students viz-a-viz competitive exams. But not anymore. Last year, J&K government’s education department came up with a novel idea and started Super 50 – special coaching classes for winter and competitive exams.

The initiative, that has around 350 students as first beneficiaries, is run from Government High School in Hyderpora. “We chose Hyderpora because it is hub of private coaching. We wanted to be right there and put our best,” says Manzoor Ahmad, in-charge Super 50 Programme. “Second, the place is easily accessible for all.”

Hyderpora and Parraypora are adjacent to each other on Srinagar-Humhama international Airport road.

The initiative was started with selection of best students from across Kashmir region by conducting entrance test. Around seven thousand students appeared in the entrance test. Out of which 500 students were selected for Super 50. The selected students were then sent to Parraypora for free coaching. “Exams were conducted in every district of Kashmir so that every student gets a chance to be part of this initiative,” says Manzoor.

Once in, the students will be given free of charge coaching till the syllabus is completed.  “Aim is to prepare meritorious students for different competitive exams,” says Manzoor.

Taught by more than twenty teachers (all PhDs), Super 50 offers smart classrooms with Wifi facility, a well stacked library, free study material for all students and rotational time table system. “Unlike private coaching centres in Parraypora, our students get everything for free,” says Manzoor.

Super 50 train students of Class 10 and Class 12 for competitive exams like CET, AIEEE, MBBS etc.

The performance of students is checked on regular basis to improve the quality of education. Majority of the students who benefited from the initiatives are from rural areas.

Benefit

A half yearly coaching session in Parrypora costs students around Rs 35,000. “Last year I paid Rs 30 thousand for my son’s coaching,” says Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, a shopkeeper from Hawal in Srinagar. “This year my son is part of Super-50. It is such a relief that he is getting quality education for free,” he says.

Barely half-a-mile away from Hyderpora where Super-50 initiative is underway, Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, a Class 12th student from Tangmarg is attending classes at a private coaching. “We have a batch of more than 150 students. Most of the time we hardly know what our teacher is saying,” says Bhat. “In such a large gathering a teacher cannot focus on individuals.”

Apart from ten orphan girls of Banat Orphanage, Super-50 includes students from economically weaker sections as well. “They were given admission without any entrance test,” says Manzoor. “We cannot afford private coaching as it costs a fortune. I am among the fortune ten to get admission in Super-50, but there should be more such initiatives for people like us so that all get chance,” says Ruksana, a Class 12 student of Banat Orphanage.

Taking cue from government’s efforts a number of teachers have come forward voluntarily to help students at Super-50. “I teach Physics to these students. I consider this as my social responsibility towards the society,” says Amir Ali, a B Tech student from NIT. “We should come forward and do our bit for these students.”

Manzoor thinks Super-50’s success depends on society as a whole. “We, as a society, need to own these government school students in order to make this initiative a success,” feels Manzoor.

In absence of hostel facility, most of the Super-50 beneficiaries, who hail from far off rural areas, have to manage accommodation on their own. “We are also planning to provide proper hostel facilities to students,” says Dr Shah Faesal, Director School Education, Kashmir. “Soon we are going to replicate this model in other districts as well.”

Students of Super-50 said that they belong to far flung areas, and most of them are paying guests in Srinagar. They have requested government to provide them hostel facility.

By Uzair Qadri

Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University: A View Of The Campus

The current cycle of violence inside the premises of my alma mater – Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) – gives me pain. This is un-called for. Universities are meant for grooming young minds intellectually but the violent means are fatal.

The varsities are supposed for discussions, debates where one can agree or disagree but taking to means of violence is unfortunate, to say the least.

At the outset, let me express my displeasure at of news stories published by Kashmir Life regarding the current events at the varsity. I am writing this in response to: Again, BGSBU is in News; Know What led to Today’s Violence.

This ‘again’ in the reportage gives me enough reason to say that there is an “intentional fallacy” in even the basic reportage about the university.

The violent protest which happened on Monday (April 18, 2016) in BGSBU Campus.

The recurrent bouts of violence for one or the other reason haven’t got anything to do with the location of the varsity. Certainly; nobody can contest the locational disadvantage the university has had at the time of being established but everywhere in the world such things become a fond memory once things start ticking.

The BGSBU is located some ten kilometres away from the main town of Rajouri; 160 kilometres from the Jammu city and 142 kilometres from the summer capital Srinagar in the midst of Pir Panjal foothills, with greenery and open spaces all around but an ‘isolated’ place!

But with the provision of facilities, things have gone better, though many many more things are yet to be accomplished in order make the University a ‘notable one’. For doing so, it is imperative that the administration of the University, the students, former and current, the people of the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch, the people of Kashmir and Jammu provinces and above all, the government of the day put their heads together.

Former CM Omar Abdullah giving Gold Medal to a meritorious BGSBU student during its first Convocation.

Considering that the varsity is only a little more than a decade old, problems are expected to crop up. Let’s accept that.

The intake capacity of the university is around 1200-1500, which has been increasing with the passage of time. Majority of the students are from Kashmir valley; but the number of students from Rajouri, Poonch and other districts of Jammu isn’t any less. In order to let the University grow, diversity of the students is important. Pluralism enriches a varsity’s learning environment.

The present incident of violence, an apt case of student vandalism, I read resulted out of misunderstanding between the students from the Jammu region and the Kashmir region. Whatever the nitty-gritty of the incident, the point is that such incidents leave a serious dent on the image of the varsity.

Many of the people I know, who have graduated out from the varsity, say it has not but that is surely a self-defeating argument. Criticism for the sake of criticism is meaningless. Those who criticise the University for no fault of the varsity itself are its greatest of the enemies. The point is that the fractures whatever there are, their roots need to be addressed, not just the manifestations.

Being honest, rather blunt enough, the fracture is because of some of the faculty members; some from Kashmir and others from Jammu, don’t respect the students! It is essential for grown-up students to be seen with a certain level of dignity.

Former CM Mufti Sayeed’s visited BGSBU in 2015 and inaugurated another hostel block of the varsity.

Some years back, when I joined the varsity, some teachers used to repeatedly blare out during classes and exam time the phrase “fault at source” when asked about anything. Other disconcerting phrases used to be “rejected lot”, “garbage” etc. I expect that is not the case, now.

Such kind of diction has every possibility to let a student be depressed. Therefore, the behaviour of a teacher needs to show a degree of restraint so that students don’t feel alienated.

The environs of the University are so open, clean and rejuvenating, though a little boring in the initial phase of a student there, that one can learn things with a fair amount of carelessness. One can discuss, debate and differ with his/her friends and nobody can stop a student from doing so. Rather than cursing the place, a student should grab the value of the moment and focus on honing his/her skills.

Another very serious problem is attitude of the students from all the three places: Kashmir, Jammu and Poonch-Rajouri towards each other. Though some students are an exception here, but a large number of students from Kashmir “sub-humanise” the students from Rajouri-Poonch, even the general populace of the place.

Attaching racist sense towards Gujjars, which is a proud identity no doubt, and using words like unpad log (illiterate people) with unabashed abandon, ascribing every wrong to the simple living of the people of the place and bringing feudal notions into the discourse, is sure to destroy the serenity of any place, BGSBU can’t be an exception.

Let the students understand, with a relaxed mind that BGSBU is the safest place, especially for students from Kashmir, to receive education in the times when Kashmiri students have been attacked outside J&K.

BGSBU students on protest in August 2015. (KL file Image)

The place remains unperturbed by the rough and tumble of Kashmir and Jammu. It also needs emphasis that students from Jammu also need to come in larger numbers. It will add to the competitive atmosphere.

For students and people from Rajouri-Poonch, it is vital to understand that the BGSBU has provided them with a superb opportunity to learn, let learn and upgrade their lives intellectually, sociologically, psychologically, and economically. BGSBU is a light to this historically neglected backyard of the Jammu and Kashmir state.

Let they, in particular, be ever-grateful to the founder-VC of the varsity. Words like “local Hai Yara” by students from the twin districts to intimidate and, at times, threaten others must be strongly dealt with by the authorities. There is no benefit in making the varsity a road-side Choupal.

If a University isn’t going to uplift the area, what is the purpose of having that? Let the people of the place understand that the BGSBU is a God-sent opportunity. Hold on to it with all the energy!

In the din of things, the varsity isn’t any less than a University in some urban area. It has got a very good library, which has books, magazines, journals and newspapers of the best quality.

I can’t think that it is any herculean task for a student to walk in the evenings and land up in the library for a while. Get bored and have coffee/tea at my favourite place Pir Pal Cafe or full fry-half fry at Sharma Uncle’s Canteen.

BGSBU Board of Governors meeting being chaired by former CM Omar Abdullah in this file picture.

Why focus on things which aren’t but should be there. Let the students be content with what is available there and not cringe about what isn’t.

Last, not the least but most important: let the administration ensure that no outsider is let inside the main gate without proper procedure. Show no tolerance to any kind of violence. Be exemplary in the action taken.

Speed up the levers of its internal working like result-making process. Such things have potential to radically better the perception about the varsity.

Many more things need to be addressed. That surely some other day.

(Uzair Qadri, is an ex-student of COET, BGSBU.)

When minor scuffle between two student groups gets 24×7 coverage on Television, something is not right. Mohammad Raafi reports how NIT Srinagar is turned into virtual battleground of conflicting narratives

NIT Srinagar

On March 31, 2016, moments after Andrew Russel hit Virat Kohli for a six over deep mid-wicket Kashmir erupted in celebrations. The ‘six’ dashed India’s hope of making it to T-20 World Cup final, but Kashmir was altogether a different story. Braving cold weather, hundreds of youth literally jumped out of their beds to celebrate India’s loss. The otherwise quite neighbourhood of Downtown lit up with fireworks and crackers.

At the same time, at National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar – where almost 80 percent students are non-Kashmiris – a small minority of Kashmiri students too cheered for West Indians. Within half an hour people were back to their routine. T-20 was history. But not for non-local students at NIT Srinagar, who went door-to-door looking for Kashmiri students, allegedly harassing them inside the campus where they enjoyed majority. Even after the verbal-duel between locals and non-locals inside the campus that night, things remained calm.

“Post match celebrations irked some non-local students who went room to room abusing Kashmiri students, male as well as female,” says Junaid, a third year student at NIT.

As tempers ran high inside the campus, non-locals began raising Bharat mata ki jai and Vande Matram slogans.

“In response, Kashmiri students raised pro-Kashmir and pro-freedom slogans,” says Junaid.

The intense sloganeering went on till late night hours making faculty members, residing inside the campus, fear for their safety.

The next morning, non-local students marched towards director Dr Rajat Gupta’s office with an intention to give him a written application seeking action against locals who celebrated India’s loss in T-20.

“We wanted to tell him (director) about the incident that had occurred the previous night,” said Rahul, a third year student. “But he did not meet us.”

Instead of talking to their classmates and sort things out, non-local students took out a march when all the local students and local faculty members were out for Friday congregational prayers.

“Once back from prayers, we were shocked to see a mob of around 500 non-local students with iron rods,” says Junaid. “They were shouting slogans, vandalizing college property including registrar’s car and some private vehicles.”

At that point some senior students, staff members and scholars tried to pacify the mob, but failed. “However, we found ourselves in the midst of a quarrel,” says Junaid.

J&K Police and paramilitary CRPF inside NIT Srinagar campus. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Unaware of the drama, Imtiyaz, who works with a courier company, and used to frequently visit the campus to deliver parcels to students, reached the NIT main gate. He was stopped by the mob and asked to say: Bharat mata ki jai, which he refused to do. “They (non-locals students) then dragged him on the ground and started beating him ruthlessly,” says an eyewitness, who wishes to remain anonymous.  “Some scholars and senior students tried to intervene but were pushed and abused too.”

As things turned ugly, a police party from Nigeen police station reached the spot to pacify the situation. “Despite being requested several times not to resort to violence, they assaulted a police officer,” station house officer of Nigeen police station said. “They were adamant to go out of the campus.”

The officer said they used cane-charge to control the situation and disperse the charged students. Seven students received minor injuries, however, no one was seriously injured.

The scene changed dramatically after the lathi-charge. “Sensing trouble after misbehaving with police officers, non-local students unfurled Indian flag,” claims Junaid. This, Junaid said, was aimed at diverting attention from vandalism to nationalism.

The tension prompted NIT authorities to order the closure of the campus. “It is not that every non-local student is trying to vitiate the atmosphere. These are a few students and to avoid further damage and disturbance we had to shut down the campus,” F A Mir, registrar NIT Srinagar, said.

“In view of the prevailing indiscipline created by the students from today, the Institute is closed till further orders,” read the April 1, 2016, notice. “Students are therefore asked to vacate the hostels.”

However, after intervention from the top officials and Kashmir police chief’s visit to the campus, the issue was “settled”. “Things were back to normal,” says Gyasuddin, a senior faculty member and an alumnus of NIT.

Later in the evening, in order to ease the prevailing tension, students exchanged pleasantries and invited each other to their respective hostels. “The night passed off peacefully,” says Atif, a second year student.

J&K Police and paramilitary CRPF stationed in and outside NIT Srinagar campus. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

But instead of going back to their normal routine, some 800 non-local students assembled in the campus on Saturday, April 2, and tried to take out a march towards the main gate. “They once again went on a rampage destroying college property,” says Shafat, a third year student at NIT.

“Video and photographs showing policemen beating non-local students had gone viral. No doubt policemen carried lathis but reality is something different. They used mild force to disperse them,” says Junaid.

Later in the day, these videos and pictures found their way on Delhi-based TV channels, giving an entirely different twist to the row.  “Same evening we organized a friendship event to ease the tension. However, barring a few, no non-local student turned up,” said Shafat.

A number of Delhi-based TV channels flew their special crews to cover the “crisis” and the “police brutality”. A group of students drove to Jammu for briefing the media (they remained hooded throughout) without even making a scant effort to sensitize the press in Srinagar. The skewed coverage by the electronic media has triggered serious concern within the police force that feels “belittled”.

Part of the coverage was sensational. Even one report suggested that for every two students there is one CRPF man, suggesting as if the NIT is unsafe for outsiders.

A non-local senior administrator sees a hidden hand behind Saturday’s stand off as things were sorted out on Friday itself.  “I don’t understand why they assembled on Saturday again when the tension was already over the previous night.”

Delhi based electronic media flew their “special” crews to cover NIT row. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

What happened next was surprising. Union Human Resource Development (MHRD) Minister Simriti Irani flew a three member team to NIT Srinagar to take stock of the situation.

“It felt as if there was no government in place in J&K. Situation was handled from Delhi bypassing state administration,” says Atif. “Why did Rajnath Singh personally called state police Chief?”

This triggered a larger debate in Kashmir. Prof Shafi who teaches at University of Kashmir asks why no such reaction from Delhi media when Kashmiris are attacked outside the valley? “Was this attempted at communalizing Kashmir?” asks Shafi.

“How many times MHRD has intervened when Kashmiri students are attacked outside the valley,” asked an NIT faculty member.

NIT in Hazratbal was established in 1960 as Regional Engineering College Srinagar (REC). Among the first eight REC’s established in India during first Five Year Plan, the Srinagar campus was affiliated with University of Kashmir. Before it was converted into NIT (in 2003), REC Srinagar had history of hosting students from Indian mainland and abroad. It was once popular destination for students from Palestine, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

“The atmosphere was always cordial barring a few incidents during early 90s when protests against Indian took place inside the campus,” recalls Javaid, a former student of REC. “During first Palestinian Intifada we carried a Palestinian student on our shoulders all the way to Lal Chowk, the procession included non-locals as well.”

After the conversion of REC into NIT the ratio of local and non-local students was to be maintained at 50:50. But there are only 20 percent locals enrolled right now.

“Out of 50 percent share to the state, 25 percent goes to Jammu division, while out of remaining 25 percent only 10 percent make it to the NIT,” says a local student. This has reduced Kashmiri students to a minority inside the campus.

After the MHRD team visited NIT Srinagar, non-local students put forth a set of demands including permanent deployment of CRPF for their security. “They want CRPF protection from whom? Did they forget how locals helped them during September 2014 floods and hosted them inside our homes,” asks Junaid.

An NIT alumnus Nitish Kumar wrote on his Facebook page, “Before hurling abuses and defaming the hospitality of Kashmiris, we non-local students need to be reminded of 2008 unrest. Kashmiris provided food and shelter to all of us studying at NIT Srinagar. They opened their hearts and provided free food and shelter to all of us in our hostel rooms. At that time no army or Arnab helped us. Stop undeclared war on Kashmiri students.”

Note: Some names have been changed on request.

By Basharat Ali

The security bandobast, in and outside National Institute of Technology (NIT) Hazratbal, Srinagar. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

A Kashmiri student studying in India finds a mention in news these days. For raising a slogan, for cheering for his favourite cricket team, for not cooking beef, or, for simply being a Kashmiri student in India, anywhere in India. This Kashmiri student is not one individual but numbers in thousands. But since these thousands have many common threads, one of them is being a Kashmiri, we can talk of them as a single body, as one single individual. Of course, they study different courses, in different Universities, follow a different lifestyle, come from different backgrounds, but one thing that binds them all is their politics. They may express it or remain silent, it is one thing that binds them together on a given day. This can happen on a day when India loses to West Indies or when one of them is beaten up for being one of them.

This Kashmiri student is in the news because he is an “infiltrator” as he raised slogans for freedom. Then he “allegedly cooked beef” in Rajasthan. Then he cheered for Pakistan in Mohali and celebrated when India lost to West Indies. Then he was shopping in Karol Bagh and sporting a beard too.

All these and many more incidents happening in India have shifted the focus on a Kashmiri Student. In response to a volley of questions, which get repeated every time a new journalist wants to experiment with this subject, he says many things.

I feel threatened. They call me a terrorist. They see me with suspicion. I don’t get an accommodation easily. I can’t talk about Kashmir much.

And much more.

NIT Hazratbal, Srinagar

The Kashmiri Student, I believe, should not wish for any better treatment. Because even in his celebration he demonstrates what is seen as “anti-national” in India, both by its people and the state. So he can be lynched on the street, beaten up inside his college campus or simply suspended. There is no other language the Indian state can use to engage with him. He should expect no other language. So the entire mention of him in the news is not because of his politics but because of his supposed ‘human rights violation’. I have come to realise that the Indian state cannot commit any human rights violations on us because it does not consider us human at all. For the Indian state, we are a herd of sheep who it finds difficult to tame.

Now, very recently we have witnessed rise of a political equivalent in Kashmir of a Kashmiri Student in India. He is the Indian Student in Kashmir. Specifically, he is an Indian engineering student at National Institute of Technology in Srinagar. He can beat up a local courier boy, his batch mates who are again local, assault a professor and a police officer and then put forth his demands.

I want a temple inside the campus, my national flag too. This entire campus is shifted out. I also demand security from the JK Police. I want exams as per my wishes. 

The Kashmiri student in India demands only one thing. Freedom from India. He does not demand security. In fact, he cannot demand it. It will be an anathema to his aspirations. He does not demand a University Grants Commission team to visit his campus. He cannot because that again reduces his politics to something very petty. So this charade why-did-the-government-not-do-this-when-Kashmiri-students-are-beaten-in-India should stop. There is nothing Indian that he demands. Not even the Indian education. No, not even fab India. He is here to shout and shut up, strike and hide.

He would say:

Put me not in a coffin made of anything Indian

Wrap me in the box made from a Deador tree

And carry home. To freedom.

For him the “local, non-local” issue at NIT is political. The “outsider” in India is political. So is the Indian Student in the “outsiders” land. There is no other way of describing them. There is no way of ending this stalemate unless one of these politicals get their demands fulfilled.

The demands of an Indian student in Kashmir will be fulfilled by his government. Very soon. For the Indian flag to be unfurled inside NIT campus, the Indian state would require to kill at least 100 Kashmiris, men, woman, young and old. Or, alternatively, they will need an entire Army of 7 to 8 lakh heavily armed troopers to be stationed inside and outside of the campus. They will do it either way.

The demand of the Kashmiri student in India will be fulfilled by him on his own. His is a long journey. It will take him few lynching’s, few hundred suspensions and seditions to get there. He will have to keep coming. Shout a slogan and then hide. Then return back and shout again.

Till then, the show must go on!

Basharat Ali

(Basharat Ali is a Research Scholar at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He specialises in Insurgency Movements in South Asia.)

Thanks to private coaching centres Parrypora is host to diverse aspirations generating Rs 200 crore business. Zafar Afaq reports

Students waiting outside a coaching centre in Parraypora Srinagar.

It is 5:25 pm and uptown Parrypora locality in Srinagar outskirts is buzzing with students, mostly from Class 12th. Slowly the crowd starts to thin from the main road and swell into the lawns of Kashmir Institute of Excellence (KEI), a private coaching centre preparing students for competitive exams.

Inside the grand building housing KEI, Nisar Ahmad Hajini is speaking on a microphone, delivering lecture to some 300 students. Five minutes later, he looks at his watch and concludes the class. Within minutes he is facing the next batch of 300 students.

The making of Parrypora as Kashmir’s coaching hub started after Prof Mohammad Iqbal Shah, a veteran biology teacher, shifted his base from congested Batamaloo to the sparsely populated Parrypora during early 90s.

His migration was outcome of vacuum left by Kashmiri Pandits, who till then were sole source of private tuition or coaching in the valley, recalls Abdul Qayoom Dar, who used to manage Prof Iqbal’s centre. “One can safely say that Prof Iqbal, with teaching experience of more than 40 years, is the father of private tuition in Parrypora,” claims Dar. “He filled the vacuum.”

The present day Parrypora houses more than 30 big and small coaching centres, working from early morning till late evening hours, catering to some 20 thousand students a day.

“Most of the teachers who teach at private coaching centres in Parrypora now, were students of Prof Iqbal at one point of time,” says Dar. “One of his students Dr Hilal Ahmad Tantray now teaches at Valley Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS).”

During troubling 90s following Prof Iqbal’s steps Dr Nazir Ahmad Banday, Dr Mohammad Yusuf and Dr Mohammed Ashraf found “safe haven” in Parrypora to teach.

“Those were difficult times for private tuition players like Prof Iqbal,” recalls Abdul Majeed Wani, a student during 90s. “There were long curfews, crackdowns, showdowns, closed colleges and schools. The only hope for students amid all this was Prof Iqbal’s coaching centre.”

As the word of Prof Iqbal and other’s success reached peripheries, a large number of teachers from small towns and villages rushed to Parrypora to try their luck. One of them was Nazir Ahmad Tantray from Palhallan village in Pattan.

A known Physics teacher, Tantray within no time attained ‘the most sought after teacher’s’ tag at bustling Parrypora. “He teaches like a scientist,” says Sameer Ahmad, who is currently pursuing MBBS in Government Medical College Srinagar.

Sameer recalls coming to Parraypora for coaching before the present system of integrated coaching – all subjects taught under single roof like a college – started. “I used to study Zoology from Dr Sadam,” recalls Sameer. Dr Sheikh Sadam, who at one point of time was Prof Iqbal’s student, also played a key role in streamlining the private coaching sector in Kashmir.

Starting his stint as Zoology teacher from NIET, Dr Sadam later opened Aristotle’s Biology Tuition Centre in 2008. “His unique style of teaching attracts hundreds of students to his centre,” says Sameer.

Interestingly, there was no Chemistry teacher of repute in Parrypora, as students like Dr Hilal (who now teaches at VIPS), used to rush to Karan Nagar. “There, Bashir Ahmad would teach Chemistry to Class 12 students,” recalls Dr Hilal.

In 2005, Farooq Ahmad, a chemistry teacher for neighbouring Budgam district came to Parrypora and started Henry & Bell School of Chemistry. Farooq’s centre became famous after one of his students topped Common Entrance Test (CET) in 2009.

Farooq is currently associated with NIET tuition centre.

Policy Shift

As Parraypora turned into full fledged private coaching centre hub, state government intervened to regulate their functioning.

The tutors were asked to wind up individual classroom pattern of tuition following complaints of exploitation of student rights at these centres.

Therefore in 2012, the individual classes got amalgamated into coaching institutes. The two popular institutes that emerged thereafter are KIE and VIPS. The amalgamation allowed students to get coaching for all the subjects under a single roof.

But the biggest beneficiary of new government policy was NIET. After individual classes were closed in Parrypora, says an insider, NIET saw unprecedented rush in admissions. Taking cue from new policy NIET roped in Farooq Ahmad and Nasir Ahmad, well known mathematics teachers, to teach.

“It’s because of Farooq Sir I switched to NIET after one year at KIE,” says Imran Ali, a Class 12 student.

But experts feel that closing down of individual classes has reduced the flexibility and the choice students otherwise enjoyed. “We were free to pick teachers of our choice before government’s intervention,” says Suhail Ahmad, who is currently pursuing post-graduation in Computer Sciences.

With multiple teachers available at a coaching centre for a single subject, students complain of ending up in wrong classes. “I joined coaching for a particular teacher but our batch was assigned a different one,” says Adil.

The focus of commercial tuition centres in Parraypora lies on preparing students for MBBS. That is why less than 10 percent students in Parrypora opt for maths. Compared to MBBS, very few Kashmiri students crack Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). “There are no takers for maths in Kashmir,” says Dar.

The reason for less footfall in maths classes is because of easy availability of scholarships in engineering colleges across India. 

Flourishing Franchises

In 2015, Bansal Classes – Kota in Rajasthan based coaching institute – opened its branch near Parraypora for students who wish to crack JEE. Interestingly, they also have course for medical entrance examinations. “We don’t take more than 60 students per class in order to maintain balance in student-teacher ratio,” says Riyaz Majeed, Srinagar Franchisee owner. “We teach 5 percent students free of cost as a policy.”

Taking cue from success of coaching centres, a number of educational consultancies – offices of Indian and foreign professional colleges – have mushroomed in Parrypora.

The fact that colleges in Kashmir can accommodate only a limited number of students keeps them in business. “Students who cannot crack competitive exams looks for alternatives,” says Bilal, a Class 12 student.

Office of Dehradun based BFIIT College, which initially started its operations from a rented shop in Rambagh, shifted to Parraypora for better business.

Money Matters

According to Dr Hilal, there are around 1100 students enrolled at VIPS presently. Each student pays Rs 9000 per subject. “Now you can do the maths yourself,” says Dr Hilal. “We have 10 percent seats reserved for orphans and economically weaker sections of the society. We teach them free of cost.”

KIE has around 4000 students enrolled this year in various classes. Each student pays Rs 36,000 per session for four subjects. Since 2013, KIE runs a lower wing as well for 9th and 10th grade students.

On the other hand, NIET has around 3,000 students on its rolls this season. They charge Rs 30,000 per-session for three subjects. “We have 10 percent seats reserved for poor and orphans,” says Javid Ahmad, member management, NIET.

Apart from these three coaching centres there are around 27 small and big coaching centres with around 12,000 students between them.

Business Benefits

Huge migratory population of students at Parrypora have opened business avenues for locals. As rolls swelled in coaching centres, a large number of houses in and around Parrypora got converted into rented accommodations. “I share a common room at a local house with my cousin in Baghat,” says Aamir Kumar, who hails from South Kashmir’s Shopian. “We have to pay Rs 2000 per month.”

Apart from the local houses, the boom saw opening of around 50 hostels available in Parrypora and its adjoining areas. One such hostel belongs to friends Fayaz Ahmad, 28, and Javaid Ahmad, 22, of Tangmarg.

In 2012, Fayaz and Javaid hired a two storey-eight room house in Parrypora and converted it into hostel for students. Each room accommodating three students costs Rs 5000. This includes breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. “We pay Rs 40,000 per month as rent of the building,” says Fayaz.

Is more than just university level politics involved in frequent violence against non-local students? Mohammad Raafi tries to find out

Located at the foothills of Pir Panjal range in Rajouri, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) is in news for all reasons, other than academics.

Be it student brawls making headlines in mainland Indian media, officials indulging in scams, internal politics etc. BGSBU has done it all, seen it all.

The recent one is result of heated argument between locals (Poonch and Rajouri) and non-local students (Kashmiris). But there is more to it than meets the eye: the external angle. “It was a small issue that was blown out of proportion by vested interests,” says Waseem Andrabi, a Kashmiri student at BGSBU.

The present confrontation, between locals and Kashmiris erupted when students from Rajouri and Poonch left for home to enjoy three consecutive holidays: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The university was to resume normal work from Saturday. “But local students decided to skip classes on Saturday as well and join back on Sunday,” says Andrabi.

However, Kashmiri students, who make almost 30 percent of the total roll, joined their classes on Saturday as per the official circular. When the local students came back on Sunday and learned about Kashmiris attending classes on Saturday, it irked them. “Some local students misbehaved with a Kashmiri. They pulled his beard, then attacked him and beat him ruthlessly,” says Andrabi. “He received some serious injuries.”

Disturbed, Kashmiri students rushed to Police Station, Rajouri to file an FIR against the culprits. “But police refused,” says Andrabi. To defuse the tension inside the campus, Registrar and Dean Students Welfare (DSW), called both locals and Kashmiri students to sort out the matter. “There was compromise after that,” says Andrabi.

However, minor scuffle between the two groups continued throughout the day, forcing registrar and DSW to visit the hostel and sort things out again.

On Monday, when classes resumed, local students stayed away and did not attend their lectures. Instead, they started beating Kashmiri students again. “A Kashmiri student was left with a fractured arm,” says Burhan, another student. It enraged Kashmiris, resulting in a fight between the two groups. “Locals then attacked Kashmiri students residing outside the campus,” says Burhan.

What happened next surprised even the locals: students from Rajouri and Poonch went on a rampage; they burned motorcycles, destroyed college property and thrashed everybody whosoever tried to stop them?

“They were not students who attacked Kashmiris, they are local goons from RSS, Shiv Sena and BJP,” says Ameer-e-Shams, a local leader from Rajouri.

Shams knows most of the goons by their names: The gang was led by Karan Thakur, Satpal alias Satta, Varun Chadha and Radesh, all outsiders, who are activists of RSS, Shiv Sena and BJP. “They took opportunity and added fuel to fire to give it a different twist,” says Shams.

In order to fan communal tensions, they beat up Kashmiri students residing outside the campus. They alleged Kashmiri students of unfurling a Pakistani flag inside the campus, and shouting anti-India slogans. “It is completely baseless allegation,” says Shams.

Another external element that fanned the tension in BGSBU was Delhi based media. “They (Delhi media) talked to these goons, who had their faces covered, to play with the facts,” alleged Shams. “None of them was student of BGSBU. That is why they had their faces covered. Still media talked to them and ran their concocted stories.”

Shams felt vindicated when District Magistrate, during a meeting, concluded that no Pakistani flag was raised inside the campus, as reported by Delhi based media. “These RSS, Shiv Sena and BJP goons are actual trouble mongers both outside and inside the campus,” says Shams. “They specially target Kashmiri students.”

Supporting Shams’ claim Choudhary Liyakat, a local member of anti-drug organisation, Rajouri, says “These political goons are often caught peddling drugs from Jammu to Rajouri.”

Liyakat revels that these RSS, Shiv Sena and BJP activists are from same gang who recently attacked Muslim truckers plying on Jammu-Rajouri route.

The fear among Kashmiri students residing both inside and outside the campus, is palpable. “It is a well planned strategy of BJP to communalize entire Pir Panjal belt on religion and regional lines,” says Shams. “There is an ethnic conflict as well.”

Meanwhile, vice chancellor, BGSBU, has constituted a five member enquiry team to ascertain the facts that lead to violence. “All the trouble makers will be identified soon.”

Enquiry notwithstanding, students and faculty members, believe that timely intervention from local police could have averted damages. “But they didn’t act. Their silence raises many questions,” feels Burhan.

Note: Some names in the story have been changed on request.

At a time when Pandit Township controversy is snowballing into a major crisis in J&K, a Kashmiri Hindu who stayed put in valley during turbulent nineties when his ilk deserted it has emerged a new role model in Kashmir’s educational sector. Today, Sanjay Verma is name whose style of schooling has made him a role model in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal, reports Bilal Handoo

Sanjay Verma in his office.

He recalls it a distress call that buzzed him on May 14, 2016. It came from a top cop informing this known Kashmiri Hindu of Ganderbal about passing of a Kashmiri Pandit in neighbouring Kullan. He was asked to inform the deceased’s brother in Jammu. “Go, throw his body in a river,” this is how Avtar Krishan Raina’s brother had responded when told about his sibling’s demise. Then, the man went to Kullan in Kangan for cremating Raina, where he stumbled upon something, putting both the brother and his likeminded at shame.

Raina, son of Nilkanth Krishan, was putting up in Kullan since 1984. Post-pandit migration from valley, he was the only person from his community who stayed put in the Muslim majority area. In 2004, he retired as an employee of Power Development Corporation. All these years, the locals say, Raina led a ‘peaceful life’ before a stroke some years ago crippled his health. It was his Muslim neighbours, who took care of the bed-ridden pandit till his demise.

The late unmarried pandit had four brother and two sisters, all residing outside Kashmir, as per locals. None of his siblings visited him despite Ganderbal authorities sending repeated word to them. When they failed their brother upon his demise as well, speculations started: So, this is how migrant KPs treat their non-migrant brethren!

But the episode and many such experiences had left nothing unimagined for Sanjay Verma – the Kashmiri Hindu from Ganderbal, who arranged Raina’s cremation with support of his Muslim neighbours.

Sanjay Verma standing before the portrait of his late mother.

Over the years, Verma has received many such calls, informing him about the demise of handful of pandits left in Ganderbal province. But that’s not what he is primarily famous for. His is an address to Ganderbal’s “experimental schooling”.

But before becoming Sind Valley’s “John Dewey”, Verma grew up watching his mother religiously teaching the village kids. His mother, late Vijay Lakhshmi Verma, was a known teacher in the region. After losing his ‘engineer’ father in childhood, he grew up at their Beehama Ganderbal home in sole company of his mother.

When KPs began deserting Ganderbal like other parts of valley during 1990s, the mother-son duo stayed put with a belief to put the home in order. “The mother would often say,” says Verma, sitting inside his office chamber overlooking his bustling school yard, “where would we go by abandoning our own home.”

It was time when a catchword doing rounds in Delhi was that the militants have been hounding non-Muslims in valley. But, the 43-year-old Verma says, they never faced any such experience. It was a proverbial Arcadian life for them as it used to be prior the gun rattle. “No one ever threatened us,” he says. “If truth be told, militants would hide their guns to regard my mother and would often stop by to greet her.”

Perhaps sensing how the majority community was passing through the tough times, the “mummy” then volunteered to teach their kids at her home. “She always believed that education is the weapon of the weak,” says her proud son. “Because of her selfless service, she still commands a great respect in Ganderbal.”

While busy mentoring the local kids, the late Vijay Lakhshmi sent her only son to Jammu’s GGM College to study science after he finished his schooling from Srinagar’s Tyndale Biscoe School.

Back home as gunmen killed 23 KPs in Wandhama Ganderbal on January 25, 1998, the family was again told to migrate by their relatives. But, they never paid a heed.

“My mother’s belief on her Muslim neighbourhood never wavered during her lifetime,” says Verma, beaming with smile. “So, there was no point to succumb to the manufactured threat. Besides, we knew how our Muslims neighbours were standing behind us like a rock.”

After completing college, Verma got enrolled in Company Secretary Course. But his “dream career” was cut short by her mother’s fatal accident on May 13, 2000 at Nigeen Srinagar. It forced him to return to valley. Verma remembers that some 10 thousand mourners had turned up for his mother’s last rites – “mostly her Muslim students”.

No sooner his mother’s ashes were immersed in waters, Verma’s relatives and friends suggested him to wind up everything from valley and settle down in any Indian metropolitan city. But Verma had other plans. “I had promises to keep,” he quips.

What he speedily did was going to give him sleepless nights for the next four years. He shelled out all his savings to level his plateau-type land near his Beehama home. But the facelift proved a costly affair. The authorities first didn’t give him an immediate nod. And when finally the approval came, the JCB charges (“then Rs 2000/hour”) forced him to trade his belongings. But results were still far away. Nearly 1400 days later, a flat ground was finally laid out for founding his dream school in memory of his beloved mother.

But the foundation stone faced hitch. He ran out of money, forcing him to sell his ‘adored’ jeep to raise some quick cash for constructing five rooms. From those rooms, he started the school naming after his mother: Vijay Memorial Educational Institute. The school established in 2004 had just seven students on its roll in its inception year. With paucity of human resource and finances, Verma along with his wife cleaned the school premises and taught the students himself.

His efforts were getting duly noticed in the province where his mother was known for her educational service. Next year, the roll rose to 70. “What people liked about my style of schooling,” he says, “was the individual attention given to each student. It is my USP. I can name and identify my student from his/her face only.”

In 2006, Verma opened a ‘unique unit’ for specially-abled students in his school where these kids are being trained to overcome their Achilles’ heel. “Unlike others,” he says, “we don’t mix all types of specially-abled students under one roof. There are dumb and deaf kids and then there are mentally-retarded ones. Everyone merits a unique treatment. It is better to create right atmosphere to enable these kids to express themselves than tutoring them like normal kids.”

The results are already there to see. Scores of such kids are now showing behavioural improvements, much to their parents’ and Master’s delight.

What has equally created name for the school is its ability to sweep the top slots in Class 8, 10 annual exams. Around 1000 students—equally known for grabbing top positions in various cultural, sports events—are currently enrolled in the school mentored by 35 teachers.

Keeping the ‘impressive’ track-record of the school in view, the education minister, Naeem Akhtar on his visit to Verma’s school in 2015 asked him to adopt one government school in Ganderbal. But what he faced immediately perhaps highlights a larger rot still plaguing government educational sector. “The moment I visited a local government for the purpose,” Verma says, “I was told how much money I would be paying for it. This is the mindset. Our problem is, we keep measuring everything in terms of money than quality improvement.”

But barring few hiccups, today, Verma is a proud man. He hasn’t only fulfilled his mother’s dream to setup a school, but also proved his detractors wrong who kept advising him to vacate the valley. The grandson of Bal Mukun Verma, an assistant accountant general in Hari’s Singh’s regime, is now being owned by those who ridiculed his initiative 12 years ago.

Amid glaring difference, Verma proudly recalls his community services, especially during 2014 floods: distributing relief, providing shelter to medicos and bureaucrats when city was marooned in troubled waters and arranging a marriage for a local deaf and dumb girl. “When I look back at past 12 years,” he says, “it makes me happy that I could contribute for my community in a meaningful manner and ended up being referred as a role model.”

Sanjay Verma with specially-abled children in his school.

The same ‘role model’ image often keeps him one call away whenever a non-migrants KP pass away in Ganderbal. On May 14, when the same call sent Verma to Kullan with his Muslim friends, he realised that it was a different situation.

Beneath Avtar Raina’s pillow, he found a written note, wherein it was written in broken English that his whole property be given to the brother, who had earlier dismissed his sibling’s death, thus: Go, throw his body in a river.

Days later, Verma received a call from Raina’s brother, inquiring: “Has my brother left anything behind?”

For Verma, who had freshly returned from immersing Raina’s ashes in a river, the query sounded atrocious—simply because, “here was the brother inquiring about the property of his demised sibling whom he abandoned upon his death”.

“Yes,” Verma told the Raina’s brother, “your brother has named you the only heir of his property. He has even left a bank balance worth Rs 6.80 lac for you.” Hearing this, Verma says, Raina’s brother felt ashamed.

But the fact was, says Verma, there was only Rs 80,000 in Raina’s bank account. “I cooked up the figure to make Raina’s brother realise that he should be ashamed of his treatment toward his brother. Hope, his likeminded also get the message.”

For bulge of workforce working on contractual basis in government sector leave is an emotional issue. While their permanent counterparts enjoy all perks, they are left on the mercy of rules of engagement. Saima Bhat reports   

In 2013, Nazia, a Rehbar-e-Taleem (RET) teacher, married Zubair, 32, a banker. Everything was going smooth till Zubair wanted to have a child. But to his surprise Nazia refused. Reason: Nazia was still a contractual employee, she could not avail a maternity leave. This irked Nazia’s in-laws to the extent that the matter forced the couple to live separately.

Zubair’s father, Abdul Majid Dar, 61, now sits quietly in his grand house, watching television with his wife Mehmooda, 55.

Dar and Mehmooda’s dream of a grandchild was shattered, thanks to Nazia’s employment status. Zubair is the only child of his parents. Zubair had married Nazia after five years of courtship.

Nazia wanted to defer motherhood till she gets entitled to have maternity leave for a longer period. But the wait was not acceptable to her in-laws, something that led to arguments and counter arguments. Fed up with continuous fights, one morning Nazia left for school and didn’t return. She went to her parent’s house instead. “Even if I go back now, it won’t be like earlier. Damage is already done,” says Nazia.

Nazia’s is not an isolated case, there are many more like her whose families have been shattered, courtesy: denial of leave during contractual period.

However, breather came recently when J&K High Court stayed a government notification that deprived female employees of ‘honorarium’ against maternity leave.

A bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar ruled, putting on hold government’s previous order, “The expression ‘without honorarium’ appearing in SRO dated 22 May 2014 prima facie appears to be illegal, discriminatory and unjust. This expression is adversely affecting legal rights of a large section of the society.”

The bench said, “till further orders, the expression ‘without honorarium’ appearing in the said SRO, shall be kept in abeyance.”

The court also added that, “While making provision for grant of maternity leave, the women cannot be denied monetary benefits on the ground that they are contractual or ad-hoc employees. The maternity leave is granted to secure a solemn purpose.”

In one calendar year, an RET is entitled to 15 days of casual leave and one month leave in case of medical emergency, including pregnancy. The period of contract for RET’s is five years. Any contractual appointment can avail casual leaves with intermittent breaks. In case he/she exhausts all leaves, then any leave taken afterwards is treated with an option of without pay.

At the end of contract, an employee is required to submit his/her report card mentioning their work, conduct, and leave statements. Any adverse comment can prolong their contract or affect their promotions.

But socially, ones employment status, office timings, number of leaves, can completely alter ones marriage prospects. “That is why doctors and bankers fall in the least preferred category now,” said Raja Begum, a Srinagar based matchmaker. “The most preferred are teachers.”

Sana’s parents are looking for a match for her since last three years. A banker, Sana’s office timings are a major hurdle in her matchmaking. “Few months back, it was almost done,” said Sana.

After families agreed, the guy, a veterinary assistant surgeon, came to see Sana at her office. The long line of customers surrounding her work desk didn’t let him interact with Sana. So he waited outside the bank for Sana to come out. “I came out at 6 pm. He straightaway said bank job is difficult with odd timings,” recalls Sana. Since then Sana didn’t hear from him again.

The problem is not limited to female employees only; their male counterparts too face such issues. With all government employments in recent years given on contract bases, private sector has emerged as major employer. But given the difficulty in availing leaves in case of marriage or an emergency, it has left employers in a dilemma.

Interestingly, for permanent government employees, rules are completely different. They can avail, earned leave, half pay leave, commuted leave and extraordinary leaves. The condition of leave mentioned in service rule is that ‘leave cannot be claimed as a matter of right.’

In case, the employees exhaust all the leave options, J&K leave rules say, “extraordinary leave granted on medical certificate, no government servant shall be granted leave of any kind for a continuous period exceeding five years.”

For government servants, whom a competent punishing authority has decided to dismiss, remove or prematurely retire from government service, ‘leave shall not be granted’ to him.

A government employee, serving in a department other than Vacation Department, those departments which have provision of vacations like Judicial, Forest, Medical, Police, Revenue, Education, Agriculture, Industries, is entitled to 30 days earned leave in a calendar year.

The maximum limit for accumulation of earned leave is 300 days in entire service career.

But, a government servant may be paid cash equivalent of leave salary in respect of period of earned leave at the time of retirement on superannuation.

For employees serving in Vacation departments are not entitled to any earned leave, if they have availed full vacation leave that year.

Every year a government employee is entitled to 20 half-pay leaves, with maximum of 180 days during entire service career. While as Commuted leave or medical leave, not exceeding half the amount of half-pay leave due may be granted on the submission of medical certificate only.

Extra ordinary leave is granted in special circumstances, when no other leave is admissible or employee gives in writing for such leave.

Maternity leave is granted to female government employee twice for a period of 180 days. This leave, is not debited against the leave account. Instead she gets paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn.

With the introduction of ‘child care leave’, female employees can go on leave for maximum period of 730 days during her entire service, which she can avail twice, for rearing or for looking after any of their (children) needs, such as education, sickness.

Child in this case means: “below the age of eighteen years; or a child below the age of twenty-two years with a minimum disability of forty percent.” During the period of child care leave, a woman employee shall be paid leave salary equal to pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave. This leave is not granted during probation and not for more than three spells in a calendar year with maximum limit of 120 days.

In addition to this, as per old rules, in case of mis-carriage including abortion, leave of six weeks is also granted to female employees. For male government employee, the paternity leave is granted for 15 days. There is ‘special casual leave’ for 6 to 14 days for males and females respectively who would undergo sterilisation operation, like vasectomy and tubectomy.

While as there is maximum of 24 months, special disability leave, in case of employee who gets injured while performing his official duty. But, first 120 days are equal to leave salary (as per earned leave). And remaining days are taken equivalent to leave salary during half pay leave.

An employee can avail a leave of 21 days, Quarantine leave, in case of any infectious diseases.

For any sort of emergency or unplanned work, there is provision of casual leave not exceeding 15 days in a year in aggregate. As per rule, a government servant on casual leave is not treated as absent from duty and his pay is not intermitted. The exception to limit of casual leaves are Police, Home Guard, Fire Service Personnel and Warden staff of jails have to remain on duty even on holidays and days of festivities they shall be eligible to avail casual leave not exceeding 20 days in a year in aggregate.

The study leave option for government employee is ‘ordinarily 24 months at any point of time’ and ‘24 months during his entire service career.’

In a place like Kashmir, strikes, leaves, holidays, curfews etc. form a significant part of an employee’s career.

There are 28 state holidays, 4 provincial holidays for Kashmir region and 3 for Jammu. Besides 4 restricted holidays, there are 12 local holidays of district and Tehsil level. Plus, on an average there are 48 Sundays in a year. In case of secretariat and its associate offices, there is addition of 48 Saturdays. They also get 20 days of leave while shifting from Srinagar to Jammu and back.

In case of Kashmir, there are at least 20 holidays a year, on an average because of shutdown calls. The number may go up, in case of any untoward incident.

Going by the normal estimate, in Kashmir, an employee stays home for around 100 days, in Jammu it is just 70 days.

With students literally caged for two months now, options to help them study are not around, barring certain symbolic community efforts in a few areas. Shams Irfan reports about the impact the situation is having on the new generation

Children during Curfew. (Photo courtesy: Umer Asif)

Since July 9, Ishan, a class 7 student of a reputed missionary school in Srinagar, starts his day by going though local English dailies, something he had never done before.

His interest in news and Kashmir’s troubled history has grown over last two months. “He asks questions regarding India and Kashmir almost every day,” said his father. “He asks why we are being killed and why we are not allowed to live normally.”

Ishan’s father has answer but doesn’t want his young son’s mind to get clogged with politics!

But Ishan, who used to spend his winter holidays shuttling between Mumbai and Delhi with his businessman father, is afraid to travel to “India” because of how it treats Kashmiri kids. “I cannot stop him from drawing conclusions on his own, he is witness to everything that is happening around him,” said his father.

Ishan’s father, a businessman who deals in Kashmiri handicrafts, tries hard to keep his son occupied during curfew, fearing he might join the protestors. “Sometimes he asks such uncomfortable questions that I am at loss,” said his father. “The other day he asked why I am not protesting for Azaadi? Isn’t it everybody’s duty to fight for it?”

Ishan, who only a few months back used to spent his free time in front of a laptop playing all sorts of first person shooter games, now spends time surfing internet, looking at videos of protests and pro-freedom rallies.

“I feel suffocated sitting in this room surrounded by materialistic things while kids of my age are beaten, blinded and killed,” said Ishan in a tone that defies his age.

The other day, Ishan refused to eat dinner telling his mother that it is insensitive on her part to cook mutton when people are fighting on the streets on an empty stomach.

That night he took leftover bread and half-a-glass of milk and retired to his room. “He was never a sensitive kind of kid. Rather, he was a happy-go-lucky chap who was into gadgets and games,” said his mother. “Now he keeps tab of every single happening. He even remembers each slain youth’s name,” said his father. “How can I stop him? It’s like stopping the wind from entering the house.”

Women and children were at the forefront of protests in Khudwani area of Kulgam district.

Same thought baffles photojournalist Bhat, whose seven-year -old son began asking “uncomfortable” questions too, after the killing of militant Burhan Wani.

“Whenever pro-freedom songs are played in our mosque, he asks me what they mean,” said Bhat. “He asks me who Burhan (Wani) was and why people love him so much. Why everybody is ready to sacrifice their lives for him?”

At first, Bhat tried to divert his son’s young and inquisitive mind, but when he failed, he decided to tell him the truth. “I don’t want him to question his father’s integrity once he grows up and learns things on his own. So I decided to tell him the truth,” said Bhat.

Bhat’s son, who is found of cricket and used to idolize players irrespective of their nationality, now thinks in terms of his identity and present crisis. “Every evening when I return home after covering day’s events he insists to go through every single image I had captured,” said Bhat.

Bhat tried to keep his son away from “gory” images of pellet ridden bodies, emotionally charged up funerals, clashes between protestors and government forces etc. by telling him that he must concentrate on his studies, but it didn’t work.

“He knows how to operate a mobile phone and my laptop,” said Bhat.

The first time Bhat’s son looked at those images on his father’s laptop, he tuned silent for a long time. Then he spoke and asked, “Why they are treating kids like this. Why they fired pellets on this small girls (Insha’s) face? What was her fault? For what crime was she punished? Do they fire at every kid?”

Bhat had no answer expect to shut the laptop forcefully. “But how long can I keep him away from the truth. He will eventually learn it one day,” said Bhat.

Lately, Bhat has arranged a local private school teacher for his son so that he stays occupied till schools resume. “For first few days he missed his school badly. But as situation got worse, he refused to even look at his books,” said Bhat. “One day he startled me when he said, ‘what is the fun of studying when CRFP is killing kids’.”

Kashmiri Sikh Children’s protest against killings. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Equally startled is an academician named Hussain. Hussain’s daughter, who studies in Class 7, at an expensive missionary school in Srinagar, almost jumped from his chair when his daughter asked him if she is a Kashmiri or an Indian?

The next shock came when she asked him about legality of Accession signed by an unpopular Maharaja with Indian Union. “I don’t know from where she gets such thoughts. I was shocked,” said Hussain. “Usually she used to ask about Bollywood actors, new films, famous people, scientists etc. But now she is curious about Burhan (Wani) and Maqbool (Bhat).”

A few months back, Hussain, who was bought up in an ultra-orthodox religious family, recalls his daughter confronting him about gender equality and treatment of women in Islam. “Being a student of a missionary school I expected such questions from her, but not the ones she is asking lately,” said Hussain.

Since Burhan’s killing, Hussain’s daughter now spends less time going through her book and more time reading about Kashmir and its troubled history. “I don’t know what will happen to these kids if they stay at home for long. They are growing up fast in this overwhelming situation around them,” said Hussain.

Chained Children: Their school is shut for last three days. The authorities have put their education under curfew as well. But today these kids come out openly and walk to their tuition centers by hand in hand.

The first words nineteen-month-old Zuhaa spoke to her parents was Baba and Mama, an endearing term for father and mother. On July 8, almost same time when popular Hizb commander Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight in south Kashmir, Zuhaa was visiting her maternal home with her parents.

The next 36 hours Zuhaa spent at her maternal grandmother’s house in a south Kashmir town, were filled with pepper gas and tear smoke. The Masjid next to her grandmother’s house played songs eulogising Burhan Wani and other martyrs. Almost every corner of the posh colony would reverberate with the same question: hum kya chahtey? And a loud answer: Azaadi!

As hospitals started to fill with injured and dead, Zuhaa’s father managed to reach his Srinagar home, and next day flew back to New Delhi, where he works as a doctor in a private hospital.

The sound of free life, traffic noise, songs playing on a neighbour’s stereo, cartoon characters and bhajan’s (playing in a nearby Mandir) almost rebooted Zuhaa’s Kashmir memory. But ask Zuhaa hum kya chahtey (what we want) and she quickly raises both her hands in air innocently and would answer: Azaaadeee. “I try not to ask her (Zuhaa) what she needs or wants when in a public place like a shopping mall or a market,” said her mother. “She quickly replies: Azaadeee.”

No Kidding: With adult on road, these kids without minding the manning in force, showed up in Rajouri Kadal. And behold that body language.

Hilal Ahmad Dar’s three-year-old son Hadi refused to move out of his house since July 9. Reason, he tells his father: bahar halat bahut kharaab hai (situation is bad tense outside).

But not all are struggling to keep their wards away from the situation in Kashmir; a lucky few have already flown their children outside the valley for seeking education and safety. “Kashmir is a lost case now, I cannot afford to compromise my kids safety and future,” said Nazir, a father of two teenage boys and a girls. After “observing” situation for a few weeks, Nazir flew to winter capital Jammu with his wife and kids. He owns a house there in Sidhrah region. “I got them admitted at a local school on special arrangement basis. Though it cost me a lot but I don’t mind as long as my kids are safe,” he said.

But Nazir’s is not an isolated case, a large number of Kashmiri students, mostly in Class 10 and 12, have joined different private coaching institutes in Jammu, Punjab and Delhi.

Interestingly, a Jammu based private coaching centre, taking advantage of the situation in Kashmir, is sending SMSes to Kashmir based mobile phone users offering special Valley batches for Class 10 and 12 students. The message promises transport and hostel facility as well. “I couldn’t waste my crucial time sitting idle in Kashmir,” said Aftab, a Class 12 student who aspires to become a doctor. “God knows when situation is going to be normal in Kashmir.”

On July 19, ten days after Burhan Wani was killed, and around 30 civilian deaths later, Aftab’s father contacted a private coaching centre in Jammu and flew his son out on the next available flight. “He was getting frustrated here,” said Aftab’s father, a middle rung government employee.

A four year old child hit by pellets holding placard in SMHS Hospital Srinagar. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Same thinking forced Nazia, a class 12 student, out of her house into humid environs of Delhi to join a specialised coaching centre. She is staying with her sister and brother-in-law at their rented accommodation in south Delhi. “I waited for around a month to get things back to normal, but they didn’t. So here I am,” said Nazia.

Initially, Nazia felt out of place in a “foreign land” but things improved when two of her classmates joined her at the coaching. “I miss my home but since my friends came I feel better,” said Nazia.

Within no time Nazia and her friends adapted to the weather and the fast life in Delhi. “It is really awesome to be here. I am beginning to like this place. At least I am free here!”

Three-decade-old Kashmir conflict has its own cost. Education sector is one of its causalities but the population used to the months-long unrest and shutdowns is coming up with innovative ways to keep the students busy with books, reports Syed Asma

Students being taught in a free school at Guchan in Dooru belt of south Kashmir

The resentment is all over. No sooner the dates for annual exams of Class 10, 12 were announced, students started protesting. Pressing for the release of thousands of young men arrested in the span of last two months, the students are seeking justice for fatally injured youth.

“How can we appear in exams when our fellow students are lying in hospitals and languishing in jails?” says a girl student protesting in Srinagar carrying a placard reading ‘Justice for Insha, Justice for pellet victims, we say no to exams’. “We do not want repetition of 2010, when many of us were injured with pellets and bullets and booked under PSA.”

After civil uprising erupted in valley with killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, all schools are closed. Amid shutdown, a few Srinagar-based private schools made effort to keep their students busy.

The uprising is not new to Kashmir, says an administrator of a private school in Srinagar. “We have had our losses in education sector since 1990 but today we understand the situation well and have explored different avenues to minimize the damage in the sector,” he says. By using Internet as tool, the administrator is engaging his students.

Although mobile internet stands blocked for past 90 days now, but the school administration believes that parents manage to access their respective worksheets – homework.

Worksheets for respective classes are uploaded on school websites. The administrators believe this will help students to complete their course work in time. “No place can ever replace a school,” says Parvez Ahmad, a school administrator, “but school administration has tried engaging students by providing worksheets and different assignments.”

So far this exercise is followed only in Srinagar and among all the schools, Delhi Public School (DPS), Athwajan, is being the most innovative.

“DPS provides us video lectures which, I believe, are the most convenient way to make the children learn their lessons in effective manner,” says Muhammad Lateef, a parent whose ward studies in DPS.

Presently, DPS is the only school which conducted its examinations. For primary and junior classes, the parents are asked to collect question papers from their teachers living in the close vicinity. And for higher classes, the school conducted examination at indoor stadium apparently for security reasons.

But well before these school administrations would make efforts to keep the students busy with assignments, many educated youth, individually or in groups, had started providing free-tuition classes.

Mohammed Saqib, a postgraduate from Kashmir University, is a part of three separate tuition centres running in south Kashmir. Calling it ‘Curfew Classes’, Saqib says its concept was introduced during 2010 uprising when the valley was shut for almost four months. Then, he was a student and couldn’t lend a hand. But in 2016, he along with a group of half a dozen friends started guiding almost 200 students.

“Apart from regular syllabus,” says Saqib, “we aware these young children about our culture and history—otherwise missing from their textbooks.”

Another resident from Islamabad, Qazi Shubli, along with his sisters and cousins, has been giving free tuition classes at his residence since June 2016. A journalism graduate from Bangalore, Shubli guides almost 150 students from Class KG to higher secondary.

“Keeping in mind the circumstances, our classes start at 6pm till 8pm. The army deployment is withdrawn everyday almost around 6pm, so we thought it is the safest time for the classes,” Shubli says.

In Shopian, a botany lecturer along with his colleagues is running free classes from Class 9 to 12. “We have cautiously chosen these four classes as they have to appear in competitive exams across India,” the lecturer says. “They need not to waste their precious time, come what may!” His group includes 8 teachers who guide150 students.

In summer capital, few organisations and individuals are also running free tuitions. But they are restricted to city outskirts only, as movement is strictly prohibited in Downtown Srinagar.

Irfan Ali, a resident of Lal Bazar and a private school teacher, along with his two sisters started a free academy at his residence. His group teaches 25 students from Class 5^th to 10.

“I am an experienced teacher and I am passionate about my job. I suppose it is my duty to help the children and get them educated in any way I can,” says Irfan. “Though I can’t create a school’s environment but I can try my best to make maximum use their time.”

Apart from individual efforts made by these educated youth, Bait-ul-maals set up at community level have identified places and individual who runs free coaching centres in Kashmir.

Showkat Ahmad Bhat, chairman Mercy Kash (MK), a Srinagar-based charitable trust, has started free tuition classes near Noorbagh. When the uprising started, Bait-ul-maals started their service, Bhat says, but they didn’t want to be confined to mere relief and ration distribution works only.

“So, we thought of opening up a proper coaching centre for students,” Bhat says. MK hired a building in the area, and provided platform for at least 25 volunteer teachers, engineers and MBAians.

“We are paying a meagre amount of rent for the building in use,” says Bhat. Already 500 students got benefited from this centre, he says. “Most of the teachers are working as volunteers but we are planning to pay a few of them, who we think would need some financial assistance.”

Amid these educational initiatives, a general consensus among the people is that: this collective community’s effort to educate children and help them complete their course work was much needed amid a war-like situation.

With 26 schools going up in flames in 113 days of civil uprising, the question everyone seems asking is, who is setting schools afire, reports Syed Asma

Hanfia school of Islamabad up in flames. (Photo: Aakash Hassan/KL)

September 19, 2016 was one of the 100 days of lockdown. A routine uneasy calm was prevalent in seething south’s Islamabad as heavy police and paramilitary deployment was all over the area. It was then flames erupted.

Housed in a 92-year-old building in Islamabad, Hanfiya Model School went up in flames. The entire locality in Islamabad’s Lal Chowk tried to fight the fire but nothing much could be salvaged.

One of three blocks of the school was gutted down in a few hours. The building was entirely made of wood and after September 2014 floods, it was renovated and was recently painted. School administration believes it to be the reason that it didn’t take fire much time to gut down the entire building.

“Fire erupted in the upper storey of the building,” says Fayaz Ahmed Rather, the administrator of the trust running the school. Fayaz, resident of Ashmuqam in Islamabad, reached the site an hour after the fire erupted. He says he is not sure about the reasons and circumstances that triggered the fire. Police have registered a case and investigations are on. So far, short circuit is said to be the reason behind the flame, but exist many other versions.

One of them is that there was a heavy deployment of forces on the roads and public movement was strictly restricted that day. “And there were no protests or clashes in the area,” says a local. “May be someone from establishment set it on fire just to add to the costs that we are paying.” Another version being popularised by certain sections shifts blame on a “gang of drug addicts hyperactive” in that area.

Government Higher Secondary School Kaba Marg Islamabad set ablaze by unknown persons on Oct 30, 2016. (KL Image: Shah Hilal)

Similarly, Govt Middle School at Batingo went up in flames for some unknown reasons. That day when a boy from Batingo was killed and a huge procession of people was heading towards the graveyard for his funeral, troops fired pellets and tear smoke shells, says Irfan, a local. “One of the tear gas hit the roof of the school and it caught fire.”

It never stopped after that. One by one 26 schools were set afire by “unknown miscreants”— as the police statements term it. Of them, 22 were government-run, three private and one Jawahar Navodaya Vidyayala. While 11 were fully damaged, the rest were partially damaged. In view of unabated torching, state education minister Naeem Akhtar said, if possible, he would gladly post security for 20,000 schools. “This is people’s property,” Akhtar said, “and society has to rise up to the challenge.”

Unlike 2010, when attacks on buildings would happen during daytime, most structures were smoked up in the dark this time around. One such structure was Government Middle School Kachdora, Shopian. Like in other cases, the trigger remains yet to be ascertained.

Making the trend of damaging school buildings a bit stronger, many other government schools were gutted down, like High School in Naseerabad, Kulgam. Believed to be the oldest school in the area, the school wasn’t attacked for the first time. “It was earlier gutted down in 1996,” says Saleem Ahmed, a local. “And now again, it became a cog in the larger firing wheel.”

Iqra English Medium Public School Batagund Veerinag set ablaze on Oct 28, 2016 by anti-social elements. (KL Image: Shah Hilal)

Police have registered FIRs in all the incidents and almost all their reports read that the “unknown miscreants” have set the government building on fire. If not by the tear smoke shell, which police say, “only emits smoke and not fire”, the schools were consumed by mysterious trigger.

Witnessing one such incident, Chowkidar of Higher Secondary School Bugam, says last month two masked men tried to set the school afire. But his vigilance foiled their attempts. “They ran away,” he says. “I don’t know who they were.”

Many in Bugam sniff a larger ploy at play. The masked men who torch schools are giving bad name to the present uprising, they say: “Had they been locals, why would they target the buildings during night?”

The locals assert that whenever they plan to target anything, they go in huge processions and usually attack during daytime. “Kashmir is a complex conflict,” said a local. “What adds to its complexity is the number of government and intelligence agencies working to malign the resistance movement.”

While this copy was about to get printed, another school, this time from Verinag, Islamabad, was burned down. As government remains clueless over the firing pattern, charred classrooms continue to pile up to everyone’s chagrin.

Engineer Sonam Wangchuk, the man who was Phunsukh Wangdu, a role that Aamir Khan played in his film 3 Idiots

by Masood Hussain

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Sonam Wangchuk, one of Leh’s most know engineers, is one of the five people from across the world who was given the Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016. He got the award in Los Angeles on Tuesday for re-shaping the world with their “innovative thinking and dynamism”.

The brain behind Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), one of the NGOs that is behind the turnaround in education sector, Wangchuk has remained central to the changes taking place in Ladakh, especially Leh, where his NGO is based.

Currently, Wangchuk is busy establishing an alternative university on the 65-hectare land donated by the village that will engage youth from Ladakh, the Himalayas and other mountain regions of the world in finding their own solutions to the challenges facing them.

But Wangchuk’s Rolex Award has a different story.

Recognition: Norphel getting the Padma Shri from President of India in 2015

A few years back, another engineer created sensation in the region. His name is Chewang Norphel, a retired civil engineer whose capacity was more visible after he left the government. Driven by preserving water for desert’s agriculture use early summer, Norphel started diverting water to spots with shade so that it freezes later in autumn. The region with limited working season faces acute water scarcity during sowing in late April though glacial-melt in June improves water discharge.

Norphel successfully worked on his project with paltry funding from various NGOs and demonstrated the systems. It improved the situation albeit at a limited scale but demonstrated the technology. He bagged a series of award. In the last, he was bestowed with Padma Shri for this technology in 2015.

The 2015 Ice Stupa at Phyang village that cost Wangchuk $125000

Working on this, Wangchuk wants to walk the talk. He intends to create 20 stupas in the district. A visual treat, these stupas, compared to Norphel’s full fledged mountains of frozen snow, melt slowly. Stupas are mound-like hemispherical structures containing relics used as a place of meditation. These are abundantly found in Leh. Wangchuk has used the name of stupa because his ice-structures are almost the same as the stupas. Unlike Norphel’s glaciers that would cover mountains and are flat and fast-melting, Wangchuk’s stupas will have iron or wooden skeleton. These conical ice mounds will be like mini-glaciers and will slowly release water for the growing season.

“The Rolex Award funds will support the project and promote ice stupas as a climate-change adaptation and desert-greening technique,” Wangchuk was quoted saying after he bagged the award. Every stupa that Wangchuk will build will be 30 meter high.

Wangchuk had done a study when in 2015 he created a prototype in Phyang village. Crowdfunded, he took a 2.3 km pipeline to direct glacial streams down to the village desert that irrigated 5000 saplings planted by residents with a 15 lakh litre water supply till July. The exercise cost $125000 that he raised through Indiegogo.

A Selfie in Hollywood: Wangchuk with Chhewang Norphel, the glacier builder

The final round for the selection of the Rolex Award for Enterprise took place in Hollywood. Interestingly, the award permits winners to get one guest along with to the ceremony who normally is a relative. Wangchuk also availed this option. But instead of getting his relative to the function, Wangchuk took Aba Chewang Norphel Lay to “honour his work of the past 30 years in the field of artificial glaciers despite limited resources and support.”

Wanchuk and Norphel with the Sikkim delegation in Leh

Interestingly when Leh’s two engineers were preparing to fly to US, the town was hosting a team of 14 officers and scientists from Sikkim. On a five day exposure/ training to SECMOL Campus to learn artificial glaciers building, they were taken Phyang valley. Their visit to Leh was funded by United Nation’s Development Programme UNDP.

In Europe: The wooden skeleton of an ice stupa

Another interesting storey linked to Wangchuk is that before taking the award, he and his colleague Stanzin Norboo Shara created the first ice stupa in the Valley of Val Roseg that is part of Swiss Apls range. They started working on it early November and by the time Wangchuk received the award, the Stupa was actually in place.

Interestingly, the 100,000 Swiss francs (almost Rs 68 lakh) that the Rolex Award will fetch Wangchuk will go as seed money to create the alternative university in Ladakh.

Europe’s first Ice stupa in making in an Alps valley

A mechanical engineering graduate from the erstwhile Regional Engineering College Srinagar (now NIT), Wangchuk earlier designed a low cost water heater besides pioneering organic farming and low cost greenhouses. His out of box thinking and quick implementation of the award made him the inspiration of the Amir Khan starrer 3 Idiots. Phunsukh Wangdu, the character than Khan played in the film is actually Wangchuk.

The post Leh Engineer Gets Rolex Enterprise Award To Create Ice Stupas appeared first on Kashmir Life.

Waseem Aziz with his students from Bunglowbagh Govt. School.

His unconventional method of teaching helped him transform a government school in a way that two shifts were needed to manage the rush. It also earned him a Fulbright Fellowship in US. Jibran Nazir reports

In 2008, after completing his graduation from Baramulla, Waseem Aziz went to face a job interview in Delhi.

When the interviewers asked him a few questions, he stood up and gave them demonstration on a whiteboard.

One of the interviewers told Waseem, ‘You will make a great teacher one day’.

Later, when he was called to join the company, he chose to teach instead.

Same year Waseem joined St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, Baramulla as a teacher. Six years later Waseem was appointed in the state education department.

Recently, Waseem got selected for Fulbright Fellowship Program in United States, a first one for a Kashmiri teacher. “

Waseem with teachers and students in this file picture.

Waseem’s journey as a model teacher started two years back from two dilapidated buildings, housing government high school, Bunglowbagh (locally known as Jabri School). The school had a few hundred students, most of them from economically weaker sections of the society.

“I was keen to use my experience as teacher in a top private school for these underprivileged kids,” said Waseem.

But given the limited resources at his disposal, replicating a financially sound private school was not easy. “In first few days I realised that these kids are eager to learn. In fact their parents wanted them to study hard too,” said Waseem.

Then defying conventions Waseem began applying his ideas in the school. The first thing Waseem did was to introduce audio/visual methods of teaching in classes. “I burrowed a projector from a friend and started using inside the classroom,” said Waseem.

In less than two years, Waseem’s school was recognized as a ‘model’ high school by the government.

“It made us feel proud of what we were doing,” said Mrs Jameela Showkat, headmistress of the school.

But apart from recognition there was no up gradation in budget allocation. “We were used to work under tight budgets. So it was not an issue for us,” said Waseem.

The next change came when Waseem introduced school diaries, helping students to feel connected. “They started maintaining their school dairies regularly,” said Waseem.

The introduction of school dairies in a government school was never done before.

Waseem feels that the current educational system is obsolete; it has not been up graded accordingly.

“In last fifty years we could only replace chalks with markers and black boards with white boards. Rest is same,” rues Waseem. “We are far behind global standards of education.”

A passionate teacher Waseem rejected lucrative offers from outside the state, and decided to dedicate himself to help under privilege kids grow.

During his college days Waseem was sought by his classmates, who would ask him to repeat lectures for them.

“They would find my way of explaining more comprehensive than our professors,” recalls Waseem. “I was always keen to grab a chalk and lecture my classmates.”

In September, on Teacher’s Day eve, Waseem prepared students to participate at an event in Kashmir University. “It was satisfying to see those kids perform with confidence in front of a huge gathering,” said Waseem.

As the news of Waseem’s success story spread in the area, request for admissions peaked.

“The number of applications doubled within just two years,” said Waseem. “We lacked space to accommodate such a huge rush.”

But Waseem was in no mood to disappoint anybody, so he started taking classes in two shifts. “The administration responded positively,” said Waseem.

The new timing for school before recent unrest was from 7 am till 5 pm. “Almost every staff member volunteered for this noble cause,” said Waseem.

The school now conducts entrance test for admissions, a first for a government run school in Kashmir.

The post Teaching Talent appeared first on Kashmir Life.

With ‘dead eyes’ in background and at the peak of a debate over education when parents drove more than 80,000 students to the examination halls amid strike, it was a commoner finally taking his own decision. Those writing examination included many rendered one-eyed by the situation. Part of media and the right-wingers in government projected it as a setback to the separatist triumvirate spearheading now nine-fortnight old unrest. But using education as a tool is no way-forward for either side, reports Masood Hussain

Students appearing class XII in examination amid tight security in kashmir Srinagar on November 14 , 2016. (Photo: Bilal Bahadur/KL)

After writing his science paper in Pulwama’s Women’s College on November 15, Athar Hussain told a reporter that education is a continuous process. “We have to study before and after Azadi,” he told Tribune newspaper.

Sounding more knowledgeable than most of the leaders on the importance of education, Hussain is just 16. He was hit by a lead pellet in his left eye on August 24, during protests in his Prechoo village, Hussain has already undergone two major surgeries at the Ophthalmology Department of SMHS Hospital in Srinagar. He was scheduled to go for another surgery but he wanted to write his examination first.

Skipping the facility of seeking a writing assistant for writing his papers, Hussain struggled to write and eventually wrote. He only eye pained so did his head. Writing in a straight line was difficult as the entire pressure was on his right eye. Even though Hussain, in his all-black dress, was calm and composed in his examination centre, hiding his bruised eyes behind the goggles, he was in sharp focus of his examiners and the fellow students. Glasses apart, he needs to use cap as an additional gear to protect his only eye from the irritating light of winter sun and dust.

Students closed their one eye as a mark of solidarity with pellet hit victims in Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar on Sep 29, 2016. (KL Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Blinding of students by pellets was a key argument that for cancellation of the examinations for tenth and the twelfth standards. Government forces that managed the unrest 2016 comprised mainly the state police and the paramilitary CRPF. Pump guns that normally are used for bird hunting were the main weapon in their arsenal to manage the protests. In the last more than 18 weeks, they have fired millions of pellets on the Azaadi-seeking protesting groups across Kashmir.

Of around 1600 people who were hit by pellets in their faces, more than 1100 received injuries in their eyes. Technically only six have been completely blinded but there are nearly 50 cases in which pellets have hit both eyes. Reports suggest that there are 33 pellet hit individuals having “no perception of light in at least one eye” and “there are many who are not being termed blind because they can tell if a light is shined on their injured eyes; although nothing more than that.”

The pellet blindings gave the 2016 unrest a distinct projection within and outside India. “But 2016 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of dead eyes,” Ellen Barry reported in the New York Times. Afroz Khan, a doctor who had operated upon a child, hit by the birdshot, as pellets are known in US, had told her: “That 8-year-old boy, he will live for 70 or 80 years.. The history remains there, even if it is not in the books.”

“As none of the powerful men who run Kashmir from Delhi expressed qualms about the blinding of children, it became clear that in its hubris the Indian state had decided that snatching vision from a few hundred young people was a fair price to pay for keeping Kashmir in check,” The Collaborator author novelist Waheed Mirza wrote in The Guardian. “There is no other recorded instance of a modern democracy systematically and willfully shooting at people to blind them.”

Police blinding 31 alleged criminals and charge-sheeters in Bagalpur (Bihar) in 1979-80 by pouring acid into their eyes is part of criminal jurisprudence. In comparison to the scale and legal sanction associated with the use of pump guns in Kashmir, it seemed too small a precedence.

That is perhaps why; the pellets triggered a rare competition within the artistic fraternity. Everybody jumped in. Everybody wanted to offer the best expressions indicative of the crisis Kashmir was confronted with. Masood Hussain, Kashmir ace artist created a real sensation when he painted Gandhi trying to give his stick to a Kashmiri boy blinded by the pellets trying to walk. Another of his work mixed Nehru’s rose-giving to pellet-blinded kids which pressed the sensitive nerve in the establishment. Finally when a college teacher in city periphery was beaten to death, a cartoonist draw blind students offering funeral prayers to the teacher as the Education Minister was seeking their attendance in the schools!

Forces stationed outside the examination centres.

But the people opposing the examinations avoided applying mind on few crucial things. Firstly, even if students will skip the examinations in autumn, they still have to sit for the same early spring. Secondly, most of the students demonstrating against the conduct of examinations were actually seeking some sort of concession because they had not gone to school since June. Thirdly, most of the parents were against the idea of delay because it would hit the career graph. Fourthly, the influential private education sector was desperate to see an opening. This was despite the “promises” some of their leaders were making for continuation of the strike.

“At one point of time, we were so frustrated because everybody was against the examinations – from Dr Farooq Abdullah to Tarigami to even Yeshwant  Sinha in addition to the Hurriyat,” one key officer in the education department said. “Then even we could feel problems within our own department.”

Officials associated with the exercise said there were two crucial decisions that helped turn the tide. “The first decision that disarmed the opponents was when we announced the option – November versus March and they lost the argument,” one official said. “Quickly, when we offered better options genuinely on basis of the syllabus that was taught, we could feel the change on ground.”

The school burning incidents added to the crisis. Nearly 32 schools went up in smoke in less than a month. By then, state’s education ministry was frequented by “mourners” who were indicating that Education Minister is being axed for politicizing education and complicating the mess further.

When examinations finally started on November 14, the attendance was 94 percent as only 1749 of the 31964 candidates were absent. A day later when the tenth standard examinations started, attendance was 98 percent plus as only 777 of the 56277 did not report to their examination centre.

The examinations continue to be a massive security drill. Examination centres are literally impregnable and in most of the cases, parents wait for their wards outside. Massive security presence could be a reason why, barring a few negligible instances of tension, the process remained incident free.

“I tried to do my duty and God helped,” Akhter said. “I am thankful to students, their parents, teachers and the larger society that they could respond to my desperation to save one year of the students. I hope the students are not pushed to such a trauma gain in future.”

But modern governing coalitions are the old chour-sipahi legends, a good cop-bad cop games. Akhter held the examination and went to offer prayers to thank God. His allies were praying for all these months for a breakthrough so that they could sell the examination. So they did.

“I’m proud of those children and their parents who are the strength of India. Education is the way to progress. They have understood and given this befitting reply. We have seen the surgical strike of the army, but this reply given by students is also a powerful surgical strike,” Union Education Minister Prakash Javadekar said. “In Kashmir Valley, for the past several months, schools were shut, over 30 had been burnt. But students from Jammu and Kashmir, Leh and Ladakh have given a befitting reply to terrorists with a presence of 95 per cent in the board exam held yesterday.”

“Those who gave the continuous bandh calls in Valley and forced the closure of educational institutions after sending their own children to best schools in other parts of country and abroad have now been exposed fully,” Dr Jitendra Singh, a minister in the PMO, reacted after 95 percent students showed up in the examination halls. “We cannot wait for the last gun to fall silent; we have no time to waste at least for the children’s career and future.”

What added to the alleged politicization of education was government’s decision to avail mass promotion for all others classes, up to eleventh. “If the policymakers believed in the importance of examinations then why they conducted examination of merely 110 thousand students and promoted more than ninety percent?” asked Ghulam Nabi, a private school teacher.  “Now it is much clear that they used examination as a tool against the resistance.”

Students leaving examination centre after appearing in their first paper.

But the impression that the youth who were part of the Azaadi-seeking summer protests were against the idea of examinations is untrue. That they were professional stone pelters getting Rs 500 notes as daily-wage which stopped after the twin currency notes were demonetized, is also not correct.

Suhaib Nazir Parray is a resident of Pulwama’s Uzrampathri village. A pellet has hit his right eye on July 29, smearing his vision. He also appeared in the tenth class examination at Mahjoor Memorial Government Higher Secondary Institute in Pulwama. Doctors have assured him that he will get his eyesight back after a surgery. He has already undergone a surgical procedure.

“Doctors advised me second surgery but I told them I will first sit in exams and then I will go for surgery,” Parray told a news channel reporter. “I didn’t ask for any help. Despite difficulties I wrote my paper.”

Parray’s problem is not different from Hussain. “I can’t write in a straight line,” Parray told another reporter. “I am struggling to keep my words within the lines.”

These brave-hearts are the new models of the new generation.

Cop guarding the examination centre.

Under the existing rules, the examiners have to offer assistants to students for writing their papers. Once the hospitals issue certificates of disability to them, assistants can accompany them to the examination halls and take their dictations.

Hospital sources said around 50 students had sought certificates and were issued. Officials in the J&K State Board of School Education said as many as 18 injured students including three pellet victims had applied for assistants and were given. Informed Prof Zahoor A Chat, the Board chairman: “We provided helpers to them on basis of medical certificates issued by hospitals. Of them two pellet victims were from Srinagar and one from Pulwama.”

But not every student having been ‘pelleted’ was fortunate or mustered courage to sit in the examination hall, this fall.

The last pellet rain was reported in Pulwama’s Rohmoo village which became distinct because three teenage girls received pellets in their eyes – an eighth grader, a tenth grader and another who had dropped out. They were rushed to hospital for basic surgery and then shifted home. Their doctors said they will gradually regain their sight and gave them dates for undergoing surgical procedures.

One of them is Shabrooza Mir who was admitted to the hospital for a surgery. She got pellets in her eye when she was studying in her room because she had to appear in the examination. Since then, she feels her life is changed.

“My friends sat in the examination centre while I was in the operation theatre,” Shabrooza told Rising Kashmir. “This hurts. I was a good student at school, and never thought that I cannot write my examination paper.” A student in love with mathematics and geometry, Shabrooza told the reporter how she wanted to make her farmer father proud. “Now I will never be able to solve the puzzles which gave me sleepless nights.”

On day one of the tenth standard examination, when parents rushed their wards to the examination halls in such a panic that traffic jams were reports across most of urban areas across Kashmir, Greater Kashmir met Faisal Ahmad in Karimabad. A half-blind carrying pellets in both of his eyes since August 24, Ahmad had no option other than staying home. His one eye has lost 85 percent vision and another one 15 percent as a result of which he is unable to study. He has already undergone two surgeries.

“Today’s science paper was my favorite but I am the most unlucky person because I could not attend the exams,” Ahmad was quoted saying. “I wept today morning when my friends went for exams but I was sitting at home.”

Son of a labourer, tragically, Ahmad elder brother, a handcraft trader, is already in jail. He has been booked under Public Safety Act.

There are scores of students in jails, police stations and other detention centres who seemingly have missed their examinations. Quite a few like Pandan’s Abdul Wahid Dar were lucky.

Arrested for stone pelting, the police charged him for various offences in FIR 99 at Nowhatta. His family rushed to the court and by 5 pm, they had got a bail. Many hours were taken in requesting police to honour the order. He was finally set free and many hours were consumed by making him comfortable at home. Next day he went to write his examination. Nobody is hopeful of his performance, probably not even him.

The post Exams, Eyes & Politics appeared first on Kashmir Life.

An 18-year-old girl’s invention helped save the centuries old art of Namda making. A sports and science fiction buff, she already has her kitty full with offers from top world universities. Heena Muzzafar tells her story

Zufa Iqbal receiving award from President Pranab Mukherji.

Inspired by a television show where local Namda artisans talked about their plight and dwindling earnings, Zufa Iqbal, 18, who lives in Lalbazar area of Srinagar, invented a “Namda Machine”.

Namda – a craft of making carpets by felting – was first introduced in the 16^th century by Mughal Emperor Akbar. Since then the art has survived Kashmir’s changing fortunes by changing hands from one generation to another, without much difficulty.

But lack of any technological intervention and dwindling sales and profits has left the artisans in a fix.

But Zufa’s invention, which recently earned her Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award, by the National Innovation Foundation, New Delhi, is seen as a major breakthrough in the Namda making.

The traditional method of making a Namda involves hardwork, rolling and pressing of wool, washing, and embroidery etc.

Zufa, who loves to watch science fiction movies, had her tryst with innovations when she was in Class 9. She made a ‘water indicating alarm’ for use in household storage tanks. Though the technology was already available in the market, Zufa’s gadget was cost effective. To get this gadget patented Zufa visited University of Kashmir’s GYAN Cell.

“They encouraged me to work on something that will help Kashmiris heritage and crafts,” said Zufa.

Once home Zufa came across a television show where Namda artisans were discussing hardships faced by them. “Their plight touched me,” said Zufa. “I instantly decided to help them.”

Zufa recalls how the artisans were pleading for scientific intervention to save the art of Namda making. “There was no mechanical intervention in Namda making so far,” said Zufa.

During her research Zufa met a number of artisans associated with Namda making, who told her, ‘if given a chance, we will abandon this profession altogether as it yields no returns’.

Compared to the traditional way of making a Namda which takes days to assemble a finished product, Zufa’s machine will take just twenty minutes. “This will help artisans to save time and money,” feels Zufa.

Immediately after its launch Zufa’s invention proved game changer for Namdha makers.

But achieving the feat of making a Namda machine was full of challenges for teenager Zufa. “I made three models before the final one. However, those initial models helped me a lot in making the final product,” said Zufa.

While working on the machine Zufa had to regularly skip her classes so that she can dedicate time. “I am thankful to my teachers who stood by me.”

To give her idea a practical shape Zufa took help from Aadam, who runs an automobile shop at Shalteng, in Srinagar outskirts. “He helped me to make the final structure of the machine,” said Zufa.

Zufa started working on the project in 2014, assigned by her school to present at the INSPIRE Awards.

It took Zufa almost a month to complete the task and got her award at the state level, instituted by DIET, in 2015.

Later, Zufa made some changes to the prototype, and finally came up with Namda Machine, that got her Award at the National level.

Zufa Iqbal displaying Namda to President Pranab Mukherji

That year, out of 55,089 entries, only 31 students from across India have been awarded. The top 10 were sent to attend Sakura Science Programme in Japan.

Zufa, who was among the top five, visited Japan, where she met best brains from across the world.

“There we met a number of Nobel Laurets. We also visited different universities, and were lucky enough to sit inside a submarine,” said an excited Zufa.

The trip to Japan helped Zufa realize the fact that Kashmir has a long way to go viz-a-viz standard of education.

Zufa, a Class 12 student, is planning to appear in national level competitive exams including NEET and JEE.

“I have a number of scholarship offers from different universities including KEIO University in Japan,” said Zufa.

Apart from trying her hands at innovating things, Zufa has won gold medal in badminton at the state level.

“I am not at all the bookworm kind. In fact, I was known as the badminton champion in my school,” said Zufa.

The post Saving Namda appeared first on Kashmir Life.

Insha Zahoor at AMU convocation.

Defying conventions Shopian’s Insha Zahoor bagged three gold medals at a recently held convocation in AMU. Saima Bhat talks about her journey

Insha Zahoor, 26, was confident that she will top in her department, but once her name cropped in three lists as topper, she was elated. A resident of Bongam in Shopian town, Insha, completed her post graduation in engineering (M Tec) from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2016.

In an annual convocation held in November, Insha bagged three gold medals for her outstanding academic performance. “The first person I called was my father,” said Insha. “It is because of his blessings that I could reach this level.”

An alumnus of Makhtaba Islamia School, after passing her Class 10 exams, Insha studied medical. Insha qualified BSC agriculture, but decided to try her luck in Food Technology from Islamic University of Science and Technology, instead.

In 2014, after completed her degree, Insha appeared for Indian Council of Agriculture Research, in Delhi. She was ranked 27^th, which would have helped her get into any top college in India. However, in the meanwhile, Insha appeared in an entrance test for M Tec in Agriculture Process and Food Engineering’ at AMU and got selected. “I chose AMU over everything else,” said Insha.

During her two year at AMU, she topped in all the four semesters.

Insha displaying her gold medals at AMU convocation.

After her last semester exams, Insha, the eldest and lone daughter among two children, decided to come home to celebrate Eid. “I have planned her stay for at least ten days,” said Insha who had to appear for viva exams on July 22.

But all her plans were put on hold after the killing of Burhan Wani on July 8. “The following days were painful as deaths became a routine,” said Insha. “I had to appear in my viva but reaching the airport was impossible.”

On July 16, Insha, accompanied by her brother, left home in a cab via Mughal road at dawn.

After reaching Rajouri passengers were asked to switch cabs to reach Jammu. “The same day I left for Delhi,” said Insha.

Born in a middle class family, Insha, a pampered child, had ‘academics’ and ‘research’ always at the top of her mind. After finishing her post graduations, she started preparing for PhD entrance. And before annual convocation, she says she was the only scholar selected among fifteen students of her batch in AMU.

“I had a desire to continue my studies in same university as the environment suited me,” said Insha. “It felt like I was at home in AMU.”

Currently Insha is research in the department of ‘Post harvest Engineering and Technology.

After receiving three gold medals, soft spoken Insha still giggles while recalling the moment when she found her name topping in three lists.

“When I saw the list, I thought it might be just one medal but when I heard I have got three, I was super excited.”

The post Gold Hatrick appeared first on Kashmir Life.

By Tabish Rafiq Mir

Author with his friends in Chennai

Streetlights and supermarkets, shopping malls and ships, traffic lights and terraces, autos with meters and buses with tickets (and not sprouting with people): I hadn’t been warned.

Men with women, animal rights and MNCs, automatic automobiles and cleanliness drives: I hadn’t been warned.

Female drivers and polite police, freedom of speech and right to information, successful businessmen and criminals in prison: I hadn’t been warned.

The rivalry and subconscious animosity between the two hemispheres of the Indian subcontinent that has been much spoken and debated about almost evaporates when you are from Kashmir. It is perhaps because we find more in common far down south than we do anywhere on the way down south: dissent and tradition, traditional dissent, seditious tradition, and traditional seditious dissent.

What I had been warned of was pot-bellied burly men, curly moustaches, and omnipresent knives dripping with blood, and the nerve-racking language gap.

I was also warned of nubile teenagers with sweaty palms, and machine brains. And coconut oil: lots of it. And flower garlands: a lot many of them. Personally, I am neither a fan of nature, nor technology. But I like to observe. I like to see what people do with it, and what it does to them.

“The unbiased transitional review of a Kashmiri in South India,” I thought to myself.

The roads were big and the traffic was fluidly mobile, long lanes of parallel traffic coursing through the veins of the city. Under streetlights which were: working and not stolen. The pedestrians stayed on the footpaths too: strange phenomenon.

The roads weren’t dark and desolate after 8 pm, and in fact, the world worked all night as well. Night shifts: never heard of them before.

Six years away from home and I had forgotten what power cuts felt like. I had forgotten the warm light cast by the candles before the Inverter-Generator-renaissance began. The power cuts – I had almost missed them.

From the airport to the apartment, I saw countless local movie posters, most of them a strange mix of sweet romance and bloody battles. Later, I saw none of the either in the people who live here. Typical Indian cinema: always failing to represent the life as it is.

This was my first day in Hyderabad.

Now that I know better, the cinema here almost sets a trail or a trend you can pick on. The Telugu theatre for fantasy -heroism; Tamil theatre for realism; and the Malayali for the much needed utopia, parts of which can be found in whatever movies the Kashmiri cinema manages to make, which also has a lot in common with the Persian counterpart.

I had been outside Kashmir before, of course: multiple times on vacation. But to experience something, you have to live it, and be part of it; in the form of an academic degree, or a deportation. For a Kashmiri, there isn’t much difference.

My first day at school was… strange. I could swear something was missing. Ah, the bittersweet smell of intense deodorants and hairstyles from every head. Instead, I saw productivity. I saw debates and seminars, and science fairs and fashion shows, and everything one could manage to fit on a productive scale of diversity.

In Kashmir, one does not replicate hairstyles from local men travelling to India anymore. This is the age of the internet. Whatever is famous all over the world is brought to us as immediately as it is to the rest of the aesthetics-loving audience every-else-where in the world.

Men and women compete in grooming, and the competition is intense, sometimes paralleling the political rivalries. Sometimes, even for the top grossing lipsticks. May god smite me if I am lying?

While Kashmir has an idea of a woman as a different sex, meant for a different set of work, women in the rest of (South) India are partners, both at home and at work.

It would be redundant to mention that the condition is the same in rural areas, both in Kashmir and in the South making a reluctant, hesitant run for it. The politics there seem to be more promising, though.

Females back home are elusive, which is why they are looked upon as something you have to impress in order to achieve validation or credibility. The eternal thirst for the forbidden fruit, I think. In Biscoe, we would deliberately pass by and through the girls’ Mallinson to show off our new rebellious shoes, loose ties, and ornamental Cleopatric hairstyles. Most of us, had in fact, spent an hour or two on the same every morning. Long lumberjack beards (which I could never boast of), and bleached facial hair otherwise: The oxymoronic blend of primitive manliness and the colloquial contemporary effeminacy.

We could live with an insufficient diet over the summers to save up for clothing brands. It was contagious. I wouldn’t be surprised. Winters were particularly expensive with bigger bulkier (more expensive) clothing.

Convent Girls School was the exotic fraternity every teenager longed to impress.

Your life circles around making lives better and/or worse for the women, and that is why a Kashmiri finds living outside Kashmir a social and a cultural challenge. There is only so much that isn’t unethical or offensive.

The biggest worries on our minds included acne. Do not blame us. We had enough data packs, and insufficient syllabi and overabundant strikes and curfews to waste our time.

What do a people do when there are no jobs and very little education? What do god-fearing Sufi romantics do? They style their hair, and perfume their clothes.

There is the traditional religious Tamil Nadu, and then there is the traditional Sufi Kashmir.

There are the culturally aware and proud Tamilians, and then there are the culturally proud Kashmiris.

There are the Dhotis for the summer extremes, and there are the Phirans for winter atrocities.

There is the South, and then there is the North.

“The unbiased transitional cultural review of a Kashmiri and a Tamilian,” I think to myself.

The post Streetlights and Hairstyles appeared first on Kashmir Life.

Limitation of options and cut throat competition leaves little scope for majority of students to stay put in Kashmir. They migrate for studying in private colleges outside Kashmir and return with certificates, Zafar Aafaq reports

A dropout from SP College Srinagar, Irfan Mir, 20 pursues para-medical degree from a college in Dehradun (Uttrakhand).

A native of Trehgam (Kupwara), Irfan had lost interest in studies. When family insisted, he decided to go outside the state. He drove to Dehradun, a place familiar to him because many of his friends from his village were already pursuing different courses there and joined a college in November 2016.

Irfan is not a lonely migrant. Limited seat quota in state universities and the also the better exposure and job avenues outside the state encourages youth to move out.

Dehradun is getting its own share from the student-pie from Kashmir. The city offers education with ease as it has abundant colleges, mostly private. These colleges have their capacity increasing with the demand as money does away with entrance tests.

Waseem Ahmad, a B. Sc IT student said the ease of pursuing higher education in Dehradun colleges makes the city the preferable option for Kashmiris.

The admission is usually secured by the intermediaries, the admission consultants. They complete the process on behalf of students while shuttling between Kashmir and Dehradun.

Besides the admission process, these consultants manage the academic issues as well.  “The strict class attendance is not an issue here,” said Umar Mir who hails from Magam (Budgam), “If we face academic issue, the admission consultants having good relationship with college administration manage that.”

Among the numerous colleges in the city, the students prefer those where Kashmiris are already studying. This gives them an edge and added level of comfort.

“The city has scores of colleges and each college has dozens of Kashmiri students enrolled,” Sheikh Fayaz, an admission consultant who hails from Kupwara said.

Initially it was a small scale phenomenon, where students opted to go for post graduate courses. But the trend in migration of students is changing. Now, Kashmiri boys and girls can be found in any college outside J&K.

In Dehradun, Kashmiri are not uncomfortable. The city shelters them with respect and that is key to good numbers of Kashmiris, there. Even the first timers least worry about their accommodation. Boys prefer living in rented accommodations for it gives them a sense of “greater freedom”. “The girls use hostel facilities as it provides security to them,” said Fayaz.

The students live together in groups of four or five. Initially, students would only find conventional one or two room accommodations; however, since the city now has a flourishing real estate sector like other parts of India, the students now prefer to live in flats.

Of late, however, many Kashmir students complain that finding a flat has becoming difficult owing to the “negative media coverage” of Kashmir’s 2016 political uprising. “Now people look towards us as anti-India beings,” says Shoaib Mohammad. He said that he and his friend roamed around the city for over a week in October last year for a flat but everywhere they were denied accommodation.   On many instances they would told by the flat owners that they are from Jammu but the owners would ask for identity cards and then flat owners would simply say no. Finally a Muslim landlord provided them a two room accommodation with limited facilities. Similar accounts were shared by many other newly migrated Kashmiri students.

The evening get-togethers among Kashmiris are regular activity. “Every other day, we meet at someone’s flat and spend time together,” says Bilal Ahmad.

The biggest congregation, however, is witnessed on Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid in city’s Kishan Nagar area. “One floor of the Masjid is occupied by only Kashmiris,” Manan Sheikh, a student said. Dehradun’s total Muslim population stands at 11.75% according to 2011 census.

Students often arrange long tours to the beautiful campus of forest research institute or a trip to the nearby Massurie hill station.

Dehradun and Kashmir have some similarity in weather and has better connectivity giving easy access to students. Arshad Ahmad, who recently had a visit to his cousin in Chandigarh, said he is waiting for his semester examination date sheet.

Ishfaq Ahmad who completed his graduation last year told Kashmir Life that the academic atmosphere is no flexible that he and his friends would visit for couple of days once every summer month to participate in the village cricket leagues back home.

They, however, miss Kashmiri bakery. The available cookies does not satisfying the urge of having the local bakery. “When a student is expected to return from home, we call him to get a bag full of Kulchas along and that way we enjoy the home made stuff,” Umar Mir of Pulwama said.

Besides earning degrees, students also get a chance to prove their mettle in extracurricular fields.

For instance Mohammad Shafi, a Kupwara resident, has earned a name in cricket in his college where he is pursuing B Sc (IT). “In Kashmir, we wasted our talent playing in paddy fields; here I have played alongside professional first class cricketers on turf wickets,” Shafi said. Last year he got selected as a class-I player in a city league, however, was later dropped off for not being domicile of Utrakhand.

Back home, the general perception is that the education standards in these colleges is sub-average. A student pursuing post graduation in Kashmir University said that the students who fail to qualify here go to Dehradun. “They come home with degree certificates but without knowledge, the student said. “There they just have to appear in exams, class attendance and practical work is least bothered about.”

The post Kashmir in Dehradun appeared first on Kashmir Life.

A two year PG course takes more than three years to complete in Kashmir University, leaving students in a fix. Saima Bhat talks to students who regret enrolling at Kashmir’s once prestigious institution

In 2014, Sana, 24, was jubilant when she got selected for a two years course in journalism at Media Education Research Centre (MERC), University of Kashmir (KU).

A fresh pass out from the college Sana wanted to work for non-local media outlets and report Kashmir. Sana’s selection made her happy as the goal was just in sight.

However three years later Sana regrets her decision of joining a journalism programme at KU. Reason: her endless visits to the university for degree since she completed the course.

When Sana joined in 2014, she had an impression that she will complete her course by March 2016. But that didn’t happen.

“It is March 2017 and I am yet to receive my degree,” said Sana.

Without degree she is not able to apply for a job outside Kashmir.

Sana believes her tryst with KU was marred by tragedies since day one.

“First floods delayed the class work and then ‘threat of floods’ postponed our three papers, if I remember correctly,” said Sana. “In winters, even a few inches of snow would delay our exams.”

Sana feels, “KU grows you old”.

After the September 2014 floods Sana’s first semester exams got postponed by five month at least. This threw entire academic calendar out of the gear.

“The only exam on time was our third semester in September 2015,” said Sana.

In January 2016, after Sana appeared in her  fourth semester exam, she wanted to submit her dissertation and research paper too, but it was not accepted by the authorities.

After she took her exam her viva was scheduled to be held in July, 2016. But it was held in October instead, once again a delay of three months. Finally the result was declared in February 2017.

That day onwards, Sana and her batch-mates started visiting the university regularly to get their provisional and character certificates.

“They (university administration) literally play with our careers. They are the laziest lot,” said Sana. “When you press them to speed up they get agitated and start creating more problems.”

But Sana’s case is not an isolated one; her story is just an example of what around 3600 students enrolled in the KU face every year. The most suffering lot is those students who have backlogs. “Their post-graduation gets  stretched up to four years,” said Sana.

However, Abdul Salam Bhat, controller examination, KU, said, “All post graduation courses for regular students are centralised. It is the concerned director or HoD who decides when to conduct exams.”

The exams scheduled for June-July 2016 are now being conducted in February 2017, because of the situation.

Being first choice of students in Kashmir for higher studies, KU has taken a laid approach towards their careers.

Interestingly, students enrolled in Central University of Kashmir (CUK), Islamic University of Science & Technology (IUST), Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU), for same course, received their degrees on time.

“Even when exams were delayed, first because of 2014 floods and then summer unrest 2016, our university managed to conduct examinations,” said Irfan, an MBA student from IUST.  “Though there was irregularity in number of months we got for each semester.”

Faiq Adil qualified for the Management course at KU in 2010. Otherwise a two year course, it took AdilFaiq three years to get his degree from KU. By the time AdilFaiq got his degree, his counterparts in other state universities, were already working.

“We end our courses in December-January. Instead of starting admission process soon after, it gets delayed by five months,” said FaiqAdil. “Then there are internal delays because of incomplete syllabus, summer internship, project trainings, presentations etc.”

This delay ultimately trickled down to college level as examinations for graduation courses are conducted by KU.

In November 2016, a group of students protested in Srinagar’s Press Enclave, alleging KU authorities of playing with their future. They were stuck in first semester since March 2015.

“It takes a student six years to complete a three years course in KU,” said Muhammad Zaid, a student.

Another student, Altaf applied for an undergraduate course in September 2014, however floods delayed the process. “Our classes started in July 2015,” said Altaf.

Once classes started their first semester exams were conducted on time, but second semester exam got delayed by a year. “Authorities blamed the situation on ground in 2016,” said Altaf.  As they appeared in the said exams in December-January 2017, but now the students have been asked to prepare for next semester exams, scheduled in April. “They have relaxed the syllabus so that our degree doesn’t get further delayed.”

Nazia, a contractual lecturer at Boys Degree College, Khanabal, Islamabad, feels its ‘injustice’ with the students.

“How can a student complete curriculum in just two months instead of six,” said Nazia. “Teachers are equally helpless as authorities take it forgranted.”

But teachers like Nazia fear they will be singled out if they raise questions with authorities.

“We have orders from higher authorities to follow the orders without asking questions,” said Nazia.

The dealay has taken both psychological as well as economical tool on a number of students.

Gulzar, a student of Baramulla Degree College, sold his camera, to pay his tuition fees. “My father is a labourer who was out of work for six months post Burhan’s killing,” said Gulzar. “University charged us fee despite not taking a single class. They said the fee is for e-tutorials.”

As shutdown continued for months university started e-tutorials for students. “It was as good as reading from the internet. But still we were charged huge amount,” said Gulzar.

However KU examination controller said, “We cannot control either floods or what happened in 2016.”

He suggests that students should understand that delay in exams means delay in degree. “I wish we could turn back the time but it is not possible. So it is better to prepare for exams,” he added.

Zaheer, who studies in Baramulla Degree College, said their college administration have told them that their third semester would be held in April 2017, with ‘relaxed syllabus’.

“We were asked to deposit Rs 17,000 against 11,000 we deposited in the first year of graduation,” said Zaheer.

A KU professor, who wishes not to be named, said the delay hurts students as it frustrates them. “They cannot compete with students from other states as they are forced to visit KU every day for degrees.”

But the problems were not limited to KU only, the students enrolled for diploma under technical board also complain of delay in their degrees.

The first semester students, who were supposed to sit in their exams in May-June 2016 have no clue even in March 2017 that when they have to appear in exams.

All examinations were held in December 2016, post summer unrest 2016, but the second, fourth and sixth semester exams, that was scheduled to take place happen in December 2016 under technical board were not conducted has not happened so far.

“Now they have changed examination patterns as well. I had a backlog in second semester so instead of next session, I have to wait for a year to appear in exam with regular students,” says Moin, a second semester student at Kashmir Government Polytechnical (KGP) college.

(All names of students and teachers have been changed on request.)

The post Delayed Degrees appeared first on Kashmir Life.