Kashmiri Women's Right to Motherhood

Dr Shakti Bhan

The health trauma suffered by the Kashmiri Pandit community in exile is a very well known fact by now. There are numerous articles published in the national press day in and day out about the various ailments the community is suffering for the last five years.

The mortality rate in the community is increasing due to natural and unnatural causes. Deaths due to changed environment 1.e. heat strokes, snake bites, scorpion bites and dog bites, stress diabetes, unusually increased number of heart attacks, falls from flat roof tops and fractures due to road accidents have also taken a huge toll. Also, it is being noticed that more young people than old are dying. More women are dying than men from death records, it is evident that on an average two Kashmiri Pandits die every day in Jammu and this excludes the deaths which have not been reported. There have been about 5000 deaths in Jammu in the past five years of exodus.

The other sicknesses prevailing in the community due to increasing psychological stress and strains, poverty and unhygienic conditions, have also been reported extensively in the past. But what is alarming is the fact that the community is facing extinction not mainly due to increased death rate but because of low birth rate.

Why is birth rate falling so alarmingly? The fact remains that there is no privacy to procreate in camps or one-room tenements. There is serious erosion of normal sexual functioning in the community. Added to it are other factors late marriage, voluntary infertility due to the unknown future of children, premature menopause amongst women and separation of couples in various towns of India as a demand of job opportunities.

The simple way to understand the growth rate of a community will be that if each couple (two people) produce three children, the tribe will increase in number as after the death of the couple (2 people) three children are surviving; if two children are produced the growth will be static, but if only one child is produced, the tribe is proceeding fast towards total extinction. As against the national birth rate of 29.3/120 eligible couples the birth rate of Kashmiri Pandit community is about 7 per 100 undivided families. Only 15 children were born in 587 families in Purkhoo Camp in Jammu in 1990. The facts are staring us in the face and this even the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Justice Ranganath Misra had to admit in the recent past. According to him the lack of privacy to procreate and overcrowded camps has had its effect and there have been only 100 births in 500 families over the past two years. Further he pronounces that this falling birth rate constitutes a human rights violation.

If the growth rate of this community remains as it is today, I have no doubt that within next few years the problem of Kashmiri Pandit community as an ethnic group will be solved by itself and Government of India would not have to bother at all or face any national or international criticism on account of this ethnic community. But as a community, we have to think hard for our survival and find ways and means to increase our number. One of the means to control this is to ensure that all eligible couples in the community produce at least three children and the other is to make our community members aware of human rights.

Every woman at all stages of her life has a right to basic health care appropriate to the stage of her life. In fact a woman's health is her human right. Article 15 of the International Bill of Human Rights in Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by U.N. General Assembly in 1948 states:

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Further, the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in 1966 states in Article 12:

1. The States/parties to the present Convenant recognize the right of everyone to the employment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

2. The steps to be taken by the States/Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realisation of this right shall include those necessary for:

a) The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child;

b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;

c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;

d) The creation of conditions which would assure all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

The Government of India is signatory to this International Bill on Human Rights as well as to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

If the community does not live again in its natural habitat and have the basic environmental factors present as in Kashmir, the birth rate is going to fall. It is also a fact that we cannot live in Kashmir till we have our homeland there. Till, this goal of homeland is achieved, the Government of India has to see to a better temporary settlement and welfare of this community in exile. As per past experiences, the Government of India is a mute spectator of this misery of Kashmiri Pandit community, partly inflicted on it by the Government itself. The time has come for us all to work hard in this direction to put pressure nationally and internationally on the Central Govt. to prevent the total extinction of this ethnic minority of Kashmir. In fact we should put Government in the dock as a violator of human rights of Kashmiri Pandit community.

(Courtesy: Souvenir released by Panun Kashmir at its one- day Seminar at Kanpur on Apri 29, 1995)

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Courtesy:- Dr. Shakti Bhan and June 1995 Kosher Samachar