The nowhere children

His mother, who was just 22 then, remarried but since her new in-laws refused to to accept her son, Bilal began living with his maternal grandparents. Soon the paternal and maternal grandparents began fighting for the possession of the child and the Rs 1 lakh compensation which he was entitled to.

However, when it was decided that the money be put in a bank as fixed deposit in Bilal8217;s name, he was ignored by both. He had to shuttle between the two houses as decided by the village elders. Bilal finally landed in a distant relative8217;s home 8212; he lives there and washes dishes now.

Bilal and Nazir reflect a human tragedy in Kashmir, forgotten and ignored. A survey carried out in the six districts of the trouble-torn Valley and violence-hit Doda have revealed that there are at least 15,000 children who lost either of their parents or both in violence. This includes 3,000 children who were born after the death of their fathers.

The State Social Welfare department runs six Nariniketans and 10 Balashrams. They look after 580 orphans and neglected children. These shelters were established decades before the onslaught of violence in the Valley. What about the increasing number of victims of violence?

On January 14, 1998, the National Conference Government reconstituted both the governing and executive bodies of the Rehabilitation Council for Militancy Victims,established in 1995. But, it proved a mere change of hands from bureaucrats to politicians as the work has yet to take off.

8220;The Government is awaiting the corpus money of Rs 20 crore that will be put into the bank so that the rehabilitation work can be carried out on interest. But we have only been able to manage Rs 6.78 crore,8221; says minister of state for social welfare Mian Altaf.

According to the state finance ministry, the Council was launched in 1995-96 with funds of Rs 50 lakh by the state Government and Rs 150 lakh from the Central Government. In 1996-97, the Jamp;K Government provided Rs 50 lakh as against Rs 350 lakh by the Central Government and donations of Rs 28 lakh from various state governments. The state Government provided another Rs 50 lakh to the Council as plan funds till March 30, 1998, putting the total corpus money at Rs 6.78 crore.

8220;Rehabilitation work does not entail this long a wait. It8217;s suicidal for the whole society. How long will they wait for the Rs 20 crore corpusmoney?8221; says a former director of social welfare.

Altaf admits the problem is alarming. 8220;We have already organised seven camps to provide artificial limbs and crutches to the physically handicapped in Baramulla, Anantnag and Pulwama. We provided scholarships to 123 orphans in Baramulla, 161 in Anantnag and 142 orphans in Pulwama. Besides, we give a monthly pension of Rs 500 to 116 widows in Baramulla, 95 in Anantnag and 223 widows in Pulwama,8221; the minister lists what the government has done.

However, there is no strategy to deal with the problem. The council is yet to constitute a committee to assess the needs of the victims.

The only functional voluntary organisation working for them says the Government is making its task difficult instead of helping the organisation. 8220;The 50-per cent grant-in-aid provided to our orphanage till 1990 was stopped on the pretext that we had to produce a non-involvement militancy certificate, to be issued by the concerned deputy commissioner. We applied to the DC,who in turn referred it to the police department. And even after eight years, the certificate is still under process,8221; says Zahoor Ahmad Tak, patron of the Jamp;K Yateem Trust, which runs the only private orphange in downtown Srinagar with 28 male inmates. The trust has a local IPS officer, a sub-judge and Director, Libraries, and two advocates as its members.

8220;Before the eruption of militancy, we had 52 inmates in our orphanage but the financial crunch forced us to reduce the number to 28 despite immense pressure. We have to now depend on individual donations from the locals,8221; said A.R. Hanjoora, general secretary of the trust. 8220;At least 10 orphans approach us for admission every month. We have to say no as there are no funds available,8221; he adds.

Rich Kashmiris also don8217;t care much about charity. When they do, it seems to be with vested interests. 8220;Recently, a businessman offered to pay Rs 1 lakh as donation but asked for a receipt of Rs 3 lakh to save on income tax,8221; says Hanjoora.