The village of Dardpora,9 km from the Line of Control and 20 km from Kupwara town,is home to 280 women widowed in the two decades of militancy since the late 1980s. I have been receiving a meagre Rs 500 every month from the government. Only a few widows get the money. Of the rest,some even have to beg as there are no jobs in this remote village, says Noor Begum,45,whose husband,a former militant,had surrendered and was then abducted and killed by militants. She has a son,Jaffer Ahmad,17,who suffers from a physical disability. I cannot afford his medical expenses, she says. The plight of Dardporas widows reflects what is happening in the rest of Kupwara. The district has 3,800 such widows,according to a survey by the NGO Coalition of Civil Society. Only 1,076 of them receive the assistance from the social welfare department. The number of widows is much higher. The government does not give the assistance to widows of militants, concedes Riyaz Ahmad,the district social welfare officer. The women lost their husbands either to militant attacks or to security operations. Many of these men had crossed the LoC,trained in arms and taken up militancy. Some later surrendered and joined the security forces. Besides the states financial assistance,there are also central and centrally supported initiatives. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to review the progress of these when he visits the state next week. Umeed,a national scheme for empowering women with self-help groups,has been launched in Jammu and Kashmir. In Kupwara,the Centre is supporting a few non-governmental organisations working with widows and their daughters. Among NGO-run projects is a vocational training centre,which the Prime Ministers adviser,T K A Nair,visited in April. A trip to the centre is part of the PMs tentative itinerary sent to the district administration,sources there say. At Dardpora,most villagers are unaware of centrally supported schemes. I never received any help either from the government or from any organisation, says Fatimah,who did menial jobs to raise five children after the death in 1992 of her husband,a militant. Of her children,Mohammad Maqbool Bhat is now deputy sarpanch. When my father came back from PoK,the army tortured him to death, he says,and recounts his mothers struggle in rearing the children. Social welfare officer Ahmad says Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has taken up with the Centre the issue of relief for these widows. State Congress president Saifuddin Soz says the Prime Ministers adviser is working on a programme to help women,especially those in Kupwara district. The PMO has already done some work, he says. But Kupwaras widows need more attention,a proper relief and rehabilitation package.
