Cutting edge

At a time when Kashmiri teenagers are giving blood to realise their dream of 8216;8216;azadi8217;8217;, an 18-year-old has bartered his ...

At a time when Kashmiri teenagers are giving blood to realise their dream of 8216;8216;azadi8217;8217;, an 18-year-old has bartered his blood for a sewing machine to set up a tailoring centre for poor girls.

Tanveer Ahmad is one among the 35 boys and girls of this village, who have launched a voluntary group, Kalandhar Sufi Self-help Line, to fight unemployment. But the biggest challenge is to beat the mindset of the elders, who consider them as rebels.

And the winds of change are visible in their village and across 12 other villages in Rafiabad deep inside North Kashmir, 60 km from Srinagar.

The group, whose members are mostly undergraduates, has already set up two Cutting and Tailoring Centres, and helped the government bring its Pulse Polio campaign to every doorstep. 8216;8216;We always looked around us and saw poverty and helplessness,8217;8217; says Tanveer, a Std XII student. 8216;8216;We never saw anything changing. There is so much corruption and everyone thinks of his own good alone. We talked about it in our group and thought of doing something. Soon our cricket ground turned into a meeting place. We would play and discuss our ideas,8217;8217; he says.

The first opportunity came when a villager was looking for a blood donor for her daughter. 8216;8216;Ghulam Nabi Bhat met us and we agreed that one of us will donate the blood but sought his help in return,8217;8217; says Ahmad. 8216;8216;We wanted a sewing machine and he agreed.8217;8217;

The group arranged six sewing machines by donating their pocket money as well as the honorarium earned from the Pulse Polio campaign.

Thus the dream of five friends took flight. But the real boost came when a social worker from Delhi, Ashima Koul, came to conduct a research for WISCOMP. 8216;8216;She helped us a lot. She even donated a sewing machine for our centre,8217;8217; says Hilal Ahmad Rather, 18, the group leader. 8216;8216;She took us to a training workshop in Srinagar where we learned how to work.8217;8217;

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The total budget of the group is a meagre Rs 2,000, pooled in by teenagers. There has hardly been any help from the village elders or the government. 8216;8216;The village elders accused us of being part of a missionary group who want to spread Christianity,8217;8217; says Rather. 8216;8216;But we kept on working silently and now all the womenfolk and youth are supporting us.8217;8217;

Hilal Ahmad, 21, says their group had once approached the sarpanch. 8216;8216;We tried to explain to him, thinking he might help. But he takes us as his rivals. He told us we should study and play because children have nothing to do with such serious things.8217;8217;

But they refused to be mute witnesses.8216;8216;Our only concept of employment here is government jobs and they are scarce. Then the girls have been made to believe they need not earn for themselves,8217;8217; Hilal says. 8216;8216;We revolted against this mindset. We convinced poor girls and their parents that they can stand up on their own feet. Today we have 20 girls who are learning tailoring and this is only the beginning.8217;8217;

Their first tailoring centre was set up in a rented house at Chijhama village. 8216;8216;We want to earn ourselves and not be a burden on our families,8217;8217; says 18-year-old Shameema, who has never gone to school. 8216;8216;We too have dreams,8217;8217; she says. The trainer at the centre, Nahida Aziz 21, a member of the group, has a diploma from the Industrial Training Institute. She has donated her own sewing machine to this centre.

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The group has also come to the rescue of a few families which are victims of violence. 8216;8216;A village boy was killed in a blast. We collected some Rs 2,000 and gave it to them,8217;8217; says Hilal.

Muzamil Jaleel

Muzamil Jaleel is a Deputy Editor at The Indian Express and is widely recognized as one of India’s most authoritative voices on Jammu & Kashmir, national security, and internal affairs. With a career spanning over 30 years, he has provided definitive on-the-ground reportage from the heart of the Kashmir conflict, bearing witness to historic political transitions and constitutional shifts. Expertise and Investigative Depth Muzamil’s work is characterized by a rare combination of ground-level immersion and high-level constitutional analysis. His expertise includes: Conflict & Geopolitics: Decades of reporting on the evolution of the Kashmir conflict, the Indo-Pak peace process, and the socio-political dynamics of the Himalayan region. Constitutional Law: Deep-dive analysis of Article 370 and Article 35A, providing clarity on the legal and demographic implications of their abrogation in 2019. Human Rights & Accountability: A relentless investigator of state and non-state actors, uncovering systemic abuses including fake encounters and the custodial death of political workers. International War Reporting: Beyond South Asia, he provided on-the-spot coverage of the final, decisive phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Landmark Exposés & Impact Muzamil’s reporting has repeatedly forced institutional accountability and shaped national discourse: The Kashmir Sex Scandal (2006): His investigative series exposed a high-profile exploitation nexus involving top politicians, bureaucrats, and police officers, leading to the sacking and arrest of several senior officials. Fake Encounters: His reports blew the lid off cases where innocent civilians were passed off as "foreign terrorists" by security forces for gallantry awards. SIMI Investigations: He conducted a massive deep-dive into the arrests of SIMI members, using public records to show how innocuous religious gatherings were often labeled as incriminating activities by investigative agencies. The Amarnath Land Row: Provided critical context to the 2008 agitation that polarized the region and altered its political trajectory. Over the years, Muzamil has also covered 2002 Gujarat riots, Bhuj earthquake, assembly elections in Bihar for Indian Express. He has also reported the peace process in Northern Ireland, war in Sri Lanka and national elections in Pakistan for the paper. Awards and Fellowships His "Journalism of Courage" has been honored with the industry's most prestigious accolades: Four Ramnath Goenka Awards: Recognized for J&K Reportage (2007), On-the-Spot Reporting (2009), and Reporting on Politics and Government (2012, 2017). Kurt Schork Award: From Columbia University for international journalism. Sanskriti Award: For excellence in Indian journalism and literature. IFJ Tolerance Prize: For his empathetic and nuanced reporting in South Asia. International Fellowships: Served as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and worked with The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times in London. He has also received Chevening fellowship and a fellowship at the Institute of Social Studies, Hague, Netherlands. Professional Presence Current Location: New Delhi (formerly Bureau Chief, Srinagar). Education: Master’s in Journalism from Kashmir University. Social Media: Follow him for field insights and rigorous analysis on X (Twitter) @MuzamilJALEEL. ... Read More