The withdrawing of cases against more than four thousand Kashmiri youth who were charged in the past one year for ‘disturbing law and order’ is a matter of great relief for all those families who have been seeking exemption of their kiths and kins for a long time. The legal battle is an intricate trap for young persons, especially for students in the sense that it becomes a hurdle for the same in their career prospects ahead. Having witnessed such cases of Kashmiri people wherein they lost the precious years of their young age, we should be able to understand the importance of the amnesty to the youth. Pertinently, It is disturbing to know that what constitutes the number of youth who have been jailed during the past one year only is equivalent to the average student roll of a higher secondary school in Kashmir .
Apart from the relief, this granting of reprieve by the government to the youth pose many challenges to the concerned families. Until recently, when the cases were active against the youth, it may not have lead to any physical harm to them but the emotional and psychological damage should have been certain which arises a need for the reparation of the same. The state of Jammu and Kashmir does not have a separate justice system for the young people, which is why the ‘youth offenders’ who have to be tried under juvenile justice system are more often than not dealt under criminal justice system and by ignoring their development and responding differences with those of adults which affect them in many psychological ways.
At a time when the world community is looking for its young generation to initiate development and change all over the world, most of our youth population remain stuck with their own development because of various issues which the conflict has imparted on them.
In the recent time, during a causal interaction with a few young boys in Baramulla town who have been jailed many times in connection to stone pelting cases, I came to know that apart from legal assistance which has ensured their phsyical freedom, the said youth have never been provided any psychological assistance, be it at societal level or government level and the same is the case everywhere else in Kashmir. They told me that after being booked under several cases, they were caught in a psychic trauma which took a toll on their studies and also developed negative tendencies in them.
Without doubt, the prison is a violent place for the young people and those who go through this unpeaceful experience of spending time in jail undergo such changes that impact them psychologically and emotionally. If the media and social organisations in coaction or independently would dig deep into the society, they will find many such young people who have never got rehabilitated after serving a jail term due to the absence of any mechanism in place for the same.
At a time when the world community is looking for its young generation to initiate development and change all over the world, most of our youth population remain stuck with their own development because of various issues which the conflict has imparted on them. In such a situation it becomes imperative that we begin to build support and mechanism for the psychological upliftment of our conflict ridden youth.
Tailpiece: The youth of Kashmir are dominated by victimhood, it is so because there are no such organisations in Kashmir that may go beyond narrative building with regard to the youth.
(The author presently a student of international relations (peace and conflict studies) at IUST Awantipora regularly contributes for the edit page of “Kashmir Horizon”. His views are personal.)
