THE HALF-WIDOWS OF KASHMIR

Their husbands have simply disappeared. But with no proof that the men are dead, the government says it can’t do much. Welcome to the twilight zone of Indian-administered Kashmir’s half-widows.

From Aditi Bhaduri in Srinagar,,,

The baby cried as Hameeda wiped the dirty rag across the dented aluminium bowl. She was hungry, but Hameeda was too busy heating milk for her elder daughter, who lay in another corner of the hovel that was home to the three. The eldest had been down with a raging fever, and Hameeda had to cater to her first. The five-year-old lay in a huddle, her emaciated body further crumpled by weakness. As Hameeda lifted her ailing daughter, her one-year-old cried even louder. Hameeda looked helplessly at me, then yelled at the baby, and then while muttering under her breath, continued to feed her daughter. But the baby continued to wail until Hameeda rushed over and thrust a nipple into her mouth. The shawl she was embroidering, which had to be finished in two days time, lay neglected on a corner of the bed.

Hameeda’s is a strange case. She is married, but without a husband. Neither divorced, nor a widow, she is one of Indian-administered Kashmir’s many ‘half-widows’ - women whose husbands have gone missing, and no one knows where they are. In essence, the married Hameeda has become a single parent - and there is little she can do to change her fortune. She can neither re-marry nor claim any compensation, for no one is sure if her husband is dead. She is living in a twilight zone, waiting for the moment her husband, Mehraj, comes walking back in through the door. Yet with every passing day, her hope of seeing Mehraj fades a little more. In the surreal world that exists in the Kashmir valley, she lives on without looking back. For here she is one of many.

Ever since militancy began in the state, women have been the worst sufferers. They constitute 48% of the valley’s voters, and the literacy rate, according to Dr. Hameeda Banu, a professor at Kashmir University, is about 32%. Most Kashmiri women work in the unorganised sector. With the conflict raging there since 1989 and claiming the lives of hundreds of men, more and more women are becoming breadwinners.

Though there is a long list of human rights activists who are vocal about transgressions in Kashmir, the plight of half-widows remains neglected. The only spotlight on their situation comes from the half-widows themselves, through silent vigils. Ahangar’s association organises groups of half-widows to hold a sit-in protest in a Srinagar park once every month. But this is not enough. Many women don’t know about it, and many are not able to make it to the vigil every month. The action is too feeble to make a difference to their situation.

Dateline: SRINAGAR, India

The worst sufferers in India’s war against separatists in Kashmir are “half-widows” _ women whose husbands are among thousands of people missing in the 13-year insurgency,

These women can’t remarry or lead a normal life because of the social stigma attached to widows in Indian society, compounded by a bureaucratic rule that missing persons can be declared dead only after seven years.

“This rule is the ultimate insult one can inflict on someone whose dear one is missing,” ...