South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

By Raies Mir: The unresolved Kashmir has affected psychological, social and economical problems among the people of conflict while the 20- year long military violence in Kashmir left an indelible mark on the life of women in Kashmir who are suffering physically, socially, psychologically and economically.
The rape/ molestation have been used as a weapon of war in Kashmir where people are peacefully struggling for freedom sine last 62 years. After 1990, the Indian troops tried to break a defiant peoples’ determination by raping women. The process continues unabated the official promises of `zero tolerance’ notwithstanding.  On 10th December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights.
Rape or molestation which is painful for one and all and Kashmiri people are facing this ugly and inhuman act due to the unresolved Kashmir conflict which has completed sixty two years, the police men and troopers continue to pursue old strategy.  Black laws like AFSPA gives special powers to the Indian army and other men in uniform deployed in Kashmir and no penal action can be taken against the military and police forces without sanction of Indian Government. Even the Jammu and Kashmir “Chief Minister” can’t punish the soldiers, even if proved guilty in a court of law, without New-Delhi’s consent.
In time of war, humanitarian rules must be observed, even with regard to the enemy. These rules are set out mainly in 4 Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977. Geneva Conventions are based on the idea of respect for an individual and his dignity. “Once armed conflict breaks out, the Conventions and Protocols shall be applicable in all circumstances, though with restrictions in the case of severe non- international armed conflicts.

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though with restrictions in the case of severe non- international armed conflicts.”
 
The Indian Government is signatory to Geneva Conventions and has been violating the said conventions particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. As the custodian of Geneva Conventions, what action has world conscience and peace loving people taken so far against unabated Indian state terrorism?”
 
The so-called Human Rights Commission of the Kashmir territory sponsored by the authorities has registered 5054 complaints of human rights violations since its inception in 1997. “Commission has registered 5054 complaints, the Commissions statement said on December 10, 2009.
 
Kashmiri women who are facing the worst sexual violence in the world at the hands of the Indian troops, paramilitary forces and police personnel. The sexual violence has been routinely perpetuated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6 percent prevalence of the same in Kashmir. Ironically, the figure is higher than that of Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Chechnya, which was reported by a study conducted by Medecins Sans Frontiers in mid-2005.
 
Some non-governmental organisations put the figure of rape and molestation cases to 9,894 from January 1989 to November 2008. The factual figure goes higher as many such cases remain unreported due to the social stigma and reprisal of authority sponsored agencies. For those cases, that are reported, most of them are not brought to any logical conclusion, giving an air to the crime. This stands well indicated by chain of inhuman incidents that have occurred from time to time against women of Kashmir.
 
There is endless list where Indian troopers and army personnel have resorted to rape in Jammu and Kashmir. Chanapora, Kunanposhpora, Handwara, Bandipore, Banihal, Doda, Budsam and Shopian are some of the examples which were reported and published in the media. How many were raped and molested? The list is endless.
 
The mass rape incident of Kunan Poshpora, wherein the Indian soldiers of 4th Rajputana Rifles (Rajput Rifles) raped 32 women including aged, young, married and unmarried after herding the men out of the village of Kunanposhpora on the night of February 23, 1991 is the most heinous amongst such acts in Kashmir. Till date the culprits of the crime have not been punished.  A survivor at Kunan Poshpora has not looked into the mirror ever since she was gang raped. “Looking into the mirror reminds me of the horror of that dreadful night.”  
 
On June 17, 1994, Indian troops of Rashtriya Rifles accompanied by two police officers raped seven women in the village of Hyhama in Handwara.
 
In another incident, Indian army personnel raped a mentally ill old woman at her house in Barbarshah, Srinagar, but police conducted no investigations. The woman later died in 1998 while the FIR awaits action from the authorities.
 
In May 29-30, 2009 two young women Neelofer Jan and her young school-going sister-in-law Asiya Jan, who aspired to be an engineer was abducted, gang raped and murdered by men in uniform. The authorities ordered a probe and later shielded the culprits resulting in yet another miscarriage of injustice in the Kashmir valley.
 
On December 10, 2009 Independent Women's Initiative for Justice (IWIJ) in Shopian represented by Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Seema Misra, Uma Chakravarti, Usha Ramanathan and Vrinda Grover in the press conference said that a sustained and calculated effort was being made by the authorities in Kashmir and Indian government in collusion with the Indian agencies including CBI to hush up the gory Shopian rape and murder case and justice was being denied to the victims' family.
 
On February 24, 2010, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS), Majlis-e-Mashawrat Shopian (MMS), Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Simiti (KPSS), Trade Union Centre (TUC) and Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar, relative of the victims of Shopian rape and murder incident deplored that justice had been denied to the rape victims from Kunanposhpora to Shopian and the authorities were using the rape as a weapon of war to oppress the liberation struggle of the Kashmiri people.
 
Respecting fundamental human rights forms the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world and according to United Nations it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to struggle against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law of whose disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind and resulted in disputes and conflicts leading to loss of precious lives, property, peace and dignity such as in Kashmir and in many other parts of the world.
 
In Kashmir Killings, torture, detentions, rape, custodial killings and other forms of human rights violation continue unabated with total impunity from the law of land, and with the discovery of more unmarked graves as Kashmir has been turned into Human Rights graveyard the situation assumes dangerous proportions, which peace loving people impresses must end to pave way for lasting solution for the peace of entire sub-continent. 
 
There is no denying the fact that the armed forces and the intelligence agencies have succeeded in holding Kashmir at gunpoint for the past sixty-two years but they have lost the battle for India at the political and psychological front.
 
A young Kashmiri woman of Keran Kupwara district said that in 1992, her husband was arrested by Indian army troops and she was molested and raped by them.
 
In a massive search operation conducted by the personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Chota Bazar Srinagar on January 20, 1990 molested some women and committed atrocities
 
A 32-year-old woman of Shahlal Handwara fought with the 98 Bn of CRPF and escaped from their clutches when they tried to outrage her modesty at Rudbugh on Sopore-Kupwara road, when most of the people were busy offering Friday prayers on December 11, 2009. 79-battalion CRPF personnel on December 19, 2009 roughed up some girl students of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School after they were returning home while on December 21, 2009, a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of Indian Army kidnapped and disgraced a minor girl student of class 12th from Sakhi Maidan Mendhar.
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A sub-inspector of 10th battalion of Indian Reserve Police (IRP) barged into the Public Health Centre and assaulted a lady doctor on duty at Ompora in Budgam  on December 30, 2009.
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The oppressors in a bid to shield the erring men in uniform have tried to confuse the issue by giving different definitions of rape. Well, only a victim knows what rape is all about and how it reduces her to a psychological wreak.
 
Yet another most infuriating consequence of conflict on women was the formation of a new class of females-half widows (wives of disappeared persons).
 
The enforced disappearances of 10,000 men, as put by the Association of Persons of Disappeared persons, rendered thousand women half widows, hundreds of children half orphaned and scores of mothers wailing. Across the valley women can be found, fighting and struggling each day to trace the whereabouts of their dear ones. These half widows are left without any entitlement to land, homes, inheritance, social assistance and pensions. Having lost the sole bread owner, these half widows are not provided any relief by the authorities in Kashmir before seven years from the date of disappearances.
 
Additionally, a half widow cannot even remarry before the completion of seven years period from the date of disappearance of her husband. Those who are willing to remarry are not able to get the match for them. The ensuing circumstances force them to perform the dual role of the bread earner and household runner at the same time. These women, to get two meals of the day, involve in various kinds of works besides raising their kids and going from pillar to post to trace the whereabouts of her son/husband. The struggle is unending and fruitless.
 
There are many women and girls who have been victims of violence, directly or indirectly. These interminable miseries of women have put them to tremendous psychological pressure. With every bullet or teargas shell that shot in valley and with every bomb blast, a woman lost her brother, husband, son or father. These adverse conditions, as psychiatrist Dr Mushtaq Margoob states, have not only given rise to various psychological disorders in them but have driven them to drug abuse.
 
According to the research report of prominent psychiatric Dr Mushtaq Margoob, in 1989, about 1,700 patients visited the valley's lone psychiatric hospital and by the year 2003, the number had gone up to 48,000,which constitute almost 50 percent of women. The report reveals the prevalence of posttraumatic disorder, followed by major depressive disorder (MDO) amongst women. The other mental diseases like bipolar disorder, panic, phobia; general anxiety and sleep disorders are also found.
 
Psychiatric diseases like bipolar disorder, panic, phobia, general anxiety and sleep disorders have shown existence amongst the women in Kashmir besides post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which tops all. These psychiatric disorders have motivated women to switch to psychoactive substances. The problem is more urban than rural though a good percentage of women in rural areas are addicted to locally grown cannabis and tobacco.
Dr Mushtaq Margoob reveals, 1.5 percent of women in Kashmir are addicted to opiates alone-the highest in the world. Thousands of them are addicted to contraband. However, cocaine has emerged as a new drug abuse by women of Kashmir, which costs the abuser Rs 2,000 to 2,500 in a day. Yet, opiates are most used drugs. It is researched that women who have gone through traumatic incidents in lives, like losing their dear ones or witnessing violent death are victims of psychoactive drugs.
 
However, the unhealthy mental state has pushed many women to take to different kinds of drugs to relax their minds. It is researched that women who have gone through traumatic incidents in lives, like losing their dear ones or witnessing violent death are victims of psychoactive drugs. Women had to endure the impact of every killing and every enforced disappearances, which either gave them a loss of a bread owner husband, father, brother or son. Dr Mushtaq revealed that four percent of such female patients take to drugs to over come depression. As Dr Mushtaq Margoob reveals, 1.5 percent of women in Kashmir are addicted to opiates alone the highest in the world.
 
''We are half widows as the authorities have failed to provide us any clue about our husbands, who were arrested during the past 20 years '' a group of the affected women told media men as the world celebrated the International Women's Day on March 8. ''We are neither married nor widows as we do not know about the fate of our husbands,'' they said, adding that if they had been killed then the authorities should inform them about their graves and should probe all unidentified graves discovered in the valley, the women demanded.
 
She said that she never felt the importance of the day, as it had never brought any revolution for the women of the occupied territory. “Kashmiri women remembered only the days on which the troopers had kill their sons or disappear in custody their brothers,” she added.
 
 
Another Kashmiri woman, Hasina Akhtar said that the women rights movements at international level in connection with the day had not affected the lives of the women in the occupied valley.

Professor Hameeda Naeem said that the situation regarding women rights in the valley was dissatisfactory as the women had been the direct victims.as the authorities had entrenched the culture of impunity through special legislation. “Gross human rights abuses are committed routinely without legal accountability of the abusers and active complicity of officials,” Prof. Hameeda observed. Kashmir's modern history has been disfigured by unfathomable acts of official cruelty and inhumanity towards women. Be it Kunan Poshpora, Dardpora, or any other place, impunity allows the crime against women to continue unabated.
 
Sociologist, Professor B.A. Dabla, added that young girls are mostly found abused to drugs in Kashmir amongst the females drug abusers. “As per our study, girls within the age group of 15-35 years are mostly abused to drugs in Kashmir. Moreover women form 25 percent of the total percentage of drug addiction prevalent in Kashmir,” he said. While stating the cause of drug addiction amongst women, he indicts the family environment, society maladjustment as major reason, with conflict the most important. Referring to the implications of drug abuse on women, Prof Dabla attributed physical, physiological and social problems to it.
 
From societal point of view, he viewed it as unhealthy for the society. “Personally, the drug abuser would suffer physically, mentally, psychologically and socially also. But this becomes grave with the negative attitude which people have towards such people. Girls lose their acceptance in society,” said Prof Dabla. He said that the attitude of people make the problem more grave then it actually is, thus making it difficult to treat.
 
He opined, “People should understand that the drug abuser, male of female, is the worst suffer as he/she does not do it of free will. It is the situation which compels them to do so.” He elaborated that the problem can only be countered, when the root of the problem is treated, without hating the sufferer. “We have to see what has led to drug addiction amongst women to cure it. The family and society has to work it out more than any other institution,” suggests Prof Dabla
 
Women had to endure the impact of every killing and every enforced disappearance which either gave them a loss of a bread earning husband, father, brother or son. Dr Mushtaq revealed that 4 percent of such female patients take to drugs to overcome depression. Though many people turn to hospitals and de-addiction centers, but experts term it as a tip of an iceberg as most victims of psychiatric disorders and drug abuse do not show up. These conditions of the women in Kashmir have failed to move the authorities to act and bring justice. While women long for it, the petty political blame game continues