Moomin Ahmad Rather & Aabid Nisar Shah
The unanticipated decision of the government on 05 August 2019 stunned the land of heaven. Since then the sufferings of unimpeachable citizens are diversifying, driving them towards more difficulties. With unchanging dosages of humiliation, disengagement, mourning, nepotism, corruption, fraud, deception, agony, and dread psychological trauma is the norm here. Correspondingly the beginning of the COVID pandemic in the middle of this further exacerbated the sufferings of everyday citizens and put each individual in a difficult situation. The ceaseless shutdown has devastated every sector and every individual of our society. The routine of children got changed from what it was like regular school, meeting friends, playing outside, and roaming around to staying inside four walls of a room. The helplessness and forlornness of our elders are visible from their wrinkled faces. Youngsters are deeply stressed thinking about their future and the restlessness caused by unemployment. The omnipresent stress has supplanted smile with a frown, peace with conflict, love with hate, tolerance with intolerance, sympathy with aloofness, hospitality with hostility, and ultimately heaven with hell. The first thing that gets adversely affected when we face crises is our mental wellbeing. Interestingly it is also the first thing that helps us to endure and survive the same crises. People with mental illness need access to treatment and clinical care. Their disorders often impair their ability to act; so access to care isn’t just about improving mental health, it is a matter of survival. When it comes to this special part of the world, the mental well-being concerns are enormous, abundant, scary, and alarming than any part of the world. Years of conflict left a generation traumatized. Kashmir mental health survey 2015 found 1.8 million (45%) adults in the Kashmir Valley have significant symptoms of mental distress. Approximately 1.6 million adults (41%) in the valley are living with significant symptoms of depression, with 415,000 (10%) meeting all the diagnostic criteria for severe depression. An estimated 1 million adults (26%) in the valley are living with significant symptoms of an anxiety-related disorder. Nearly 1 in 5 adults (19%) or 771,000 individuals in the Valley are living with significant Post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) symptoms, with 248,000 (6%) meeting the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. High rates of co-morbidity of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD were found in adults living in the valley. Every season of turbulence in Kashmir brings a new kind of agony. Our children have remained out of school for months and it has heavily damaged their overall development. They have forgotten games are played in a playground instead of a phone. Children are likely to experiencing anxiety and fear, and this can include the types of fears that are very similar to those experienced by adults such as a fear of dying, separation from families, forced displacements, and illegal detentions. The detrimental effects of lockdown trauma are not restricted to specific mental health diagnoses but include a broad and multifaceted set of developmental outcomes that compromise family and peer relations as well as school performance and general life satisfaction. The youngsters who shoulder major miseries of our societies are unable to understand their role and they continue to suffer directly from conflict, poverty, corruption, nepotism, unemployment, and now the most severe effects of COVID19-. The long-lasting lockdown has put the deleterious effect on careers and education of youth. The government is unable to outline compelling strategies to diminish the adversities of youth. Furthermore, educated youth here can’t even think about the private sector because it’s all over already. Mental illness is driving our youth to nasty destinations.
The Government should find out ways and take necessary steps to compensate for academic loss at the earliest and simultaneously the government should be serious about the future of the youth so that the talented youth can participate in the development processes.
The elderly people have been identified as more vulnerable to COVID-19, Which pushed them towards greater fragility and torment. They are bothering about the plight of offsprings and this concern is having a very dangerous effect on their mental health. The long-lasting conflict has not only purged our houses but also turned them into psychiatric hospitals too. People in the valley are facing psychological turmoil, having lost or being at risk of losing their health and wealth. Frequent misinformation and rumors about the pandemic and deep uncertainty about how long it will last are making people feel anxious and hopeless about the future. The uncertainty, the economic turmoil, the fear, and social isolation, – they all cause psychological stress to almost every sect of our society. The echoes of helplessness are haunting our surroundings. Red cross says investing in mental health and psycho-social support saves lives. Such investment also reaps economic benefits in post-conflict environments. It notes every dollar invested in treatment for depression can lead to a five-dollar return in better health. Keeping in view the importance of mental health, administrators should take steps to eliminate the problems of people and start investing in mental health to address the prevailing crises. The Government should find out ways and take necessary steps to compensate for academic loss at the earliest and simultaneously the government should be serious about the future of the youth so that the talented youth can participate in the development processes. The educated youth, civil society, NGO’S and other organizations can also become handy in easing the life of people.
(Authors are students of at the PG Dept. Of Education CUK Ganderbal. Views are their own ) [email protected]