Disability Day and Pellets
Kashmir must observe the World Disability Day and reason for celebrating the day is simple
Safina Nabi
It was just another routine day and I was home when my phone rang around 10 in the evening. It was my cousin who lives in Delhi. When I answered the phone call I heard a different voice. It was my younger cousin brother who had arrived from Srinagar. Upon hearing his voice I couldn’t resist and went to meet him.
When I entered the room I saw marks all over his face and arms. When I enquired about it, he narrated his ordeal. “I was hit by pellets twice and was operated too,” he said.
While he was mentioning how, when and what happened, he was blushing like a red apple. Suddenly, he took out his phone and showed me few pictures. His eyes were damp.
When I saw the pictures, my eyes swelled with tears. The only line that particularly pierced my heart was ‘Khudayan kor reham natea asha bête wenkin oaen’ (God saved me otherwise as of now I would also have been blind).
When I left the room I thought and thought and was not able to give attention to anything else but him. These words were lingering in my head throughout the entire hours of darkness. I couldn’t sleep or eat. The only question that still is haunting me is the plight of all the children/people who will never be able to differentiate even between colors. Their world will remain dark from onwards. The only color they will now relate to is black.
Today is the day for the people of Kashmir to get familiar with ‘The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995’. The law has by now completed two decades of existence. However, the majority of disabled people are yet to avail the entitlements envisaged under the law.
Although, world will be observing a day that we love to call as a ‘day of persons with special abilities’ but it will be dissimilar for Kashmir.
Kashmir must observe the ‘World Disability Day’ and reason for celebrating the day is simple. It’s been a continuous year of sufferings for Kashmiris in number of ways.
First, more than 500 to 800 are completely or partially blinded due to the use of “non-lethal” weapon pellet guns that forces used on the people of Kashmir.
Thousands are jailed under Public Safety Act (PSA), hundreds are in hospitals. Also, there are no appropriate figures to mention how many are with different types of disabilities due to the present unrest.
Kashmiri community has varied reasons to carve the 2016 unrest in their memories, hearts, and minds. Be it mothers, sisters, fathers, wives, students or those who will now be forever live with a tag of ‘Disable people’.
Irony is that these youngsters need to know the definition of ‘The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995’ beneath different sections. For Example; under Section 33 of the PWDA, it is mandatory for the government to provide three percent reservation to the disabled in public employment.
It also calls upon central and state governments to establish special employment exchanges to facilitate easy and hassle-free placement for eligible disabled candidates.
Nevertheless, there will be competition in the category of disability more than in SC/ST category in Kashmir.
Unfortunately, the climax will be how many people will be catered under that three percent. A number of NGOs will have to sprout to fight for the rights of disabled people now.
Over the past decades, we were already dealing with the problems of depression, anxiety, PTSD and related diseases. We have dealt with thousands of issues concerning women, families whose children joined armed struggle, and many others.
Kashmir has a generation now that has been blinded. This year has created a history for different reasons like 100 days of curfew, burning of schools, unending bloodshed and moreover blinding people.
Our civil society, people working in developmental areas, people who are psychologists have to come forward to counsel all those people who have been affected in one way or the other. The task is tedious and endless but not unworkable.
We all should pull our socks and work for the betterment of people who have been blinded even if we contribute one percent towards them will make a difference as nothing should cripple, curb or restrain us. We are survivors and we will remain so.
safina.nabi@gmail.com
