Endangered identity, receding demographics Need of an action plan

 

Dear community members 

Namaskar

In about a month's time, we will be entering a brand New Year, 2019, which will also translate into our exile completing 28 years after we as a community have maintained that January 1990 was the moment of our uprooting and exodus. So, effectively we are at the doorstep of yet another year of uncertain future, left with just a hope that things will look up, we will get back to our home.

The dynamics of mass displacement is a process with a lot of unpleasant changes over a period of time. When we fled from Kashmir valley to save our lives and honour, little did we know that the journey ahead is full of uncertainty? We died Lota by iota and are still dying each day. Our identity has been the biggest victim of this unending displacement. Given that we were an ancient race always proud of our purity, heritage and faith, the long years of dispersion have taken a toll steadily with erosion of our ethos and amalgamation with the new order.

We have faced cultural migration, climatic migration, habitat migration, economic migration and perhaps migration of values as well Much of the painful and undesirable changes that these plethora of migrations have brought about in our lives, have negatively impacted our culture and identity It is not that the positives are completely absent, but it is the present that holds a mirror of our endangered identity.

While we as a community may not have a wherewithal or a planned architecture to preserve our identity as we were ill-prepared for such a prolonged hardship outside our natural habitat, we have to take a stock of the situation and show a collective will to safeguard our identity for future generations.

Though there is no exact estimate of our total population but surely it is on decline. The number of people left in Kashmir valley is a few thousands. There is a long history of migration from the valley from time immemorial and the top most reason has been the religious persecution. So, effectively, KPs are scattered all over the world but may not add up to a significant number. Some people put the number at seven lakh, some at half of that, but there is no exact estimate. One big task before us is to have a kind of census to arrive at some authentic figure.

An interesting fact that came to light recently was that our displaced community didn't get medical insurance cover under the newly launched Ayushman Bharat Bima Yojna or PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) because the government organ Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) on whose data the beneficiaries have been identified didn't survey us This is a failure on our part as well We have failed to project our cause forcibly.

We have excessively relied on government machinery and remained contented with a few entitlements that were bestowed on us at the time of mass migration. We have not asked for a better life. We have not asked for our wellness. Our decline is partly our own creation

An important development that took place recently as the convictions in the 1984 Sikh notes case. The conviction came after a special investigation team (SIT) reopened the cases and filed charge sheets. Why are there double standards? Why not a SIT for our victims? The killers of our community members are roaming freely without remorse. We need to aggressively campaign for this.

In light of the above-said discussion, we as a community need to first acknowledge that we are on decline number wise and as a collective voice: We need to think and come out with some action plans so that this decline is arrested and our identity is preserved.

I am happy to inform you that we will be holding a panel discussion on our Dedication Day (Dec. 25) on the subject and hope the discussion will lay foundation of this action plan.

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Courtesy:- Vijay Raina and Koshur Samachar 2018, December