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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Baby boom in Valley death zone by Muzaffar Raina

Baby boom in Valley death zone by Muzaffar Raina

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published Published on Apr 5, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 5, 2011
The district that lost the highest number of people to militancy in Jammu and Kashmir appears to be making up for the loss through a baby boom.

The provisional findings of the 2011 census show that Kupwara has the highest proportion of children aged up to six years among all the 627 districts in the country.

The figures reveal that 22.5 per cent of Kupwara’s population is six years old or less against the national average of 13.1 per cent. The percentage stood at 17.25 in Kupwara during the 2001 census, and even then it was the highest in the state.

Human rights activist Khurram Parvez said the district had suffered more than any other in the past 20 years of militancy.

“Kupwara tops the number of men killed in any district in the state. The number would be over 7,000,” said Khurram, coordinator of the Srinagar-based Coalition of Civil Societies.

Khurram said many villages in Kupwara had dozens of widows. “In Dardpora (village) alone, 122 women were widowed (during militancy),” he said.

Engineer Rasheed, an MLA from Kupwara, said these killings were a major reason for the increased child population in the district.

“My estimates are that over 4,000 women were widowed in the district (because of militancy) and there is a strong tradition of them remarrying and ending up having more children from their second husbands,” he said.

Rasheed said the other reasons included illiteracy and early marriages. “Religion too plays an important role. Many families feel that their religion (Islam in the case of Kupwara) encourages couples to have more children,” he said.

Kupwara has the lowest literacy rate — just over 50 per cent according to a state government survey last year — among the Valley’s 10 districts. The state average is 65.57 per cent.

The increased fertility rate in Kupwara has already ruffled feathers in the state’s Sangh parivar units. State BJP president S.S. Manhas said these figures were “bogus”.

“I doubt these (census) figures. There is a tendency to inflate the population of Kashmir against Jammu to get more and more incentives. I think Kupwara has been chosen because it is a remote district and nobody will go there to check the veracity of these figures,” he said.

The border district of Kupwara is often called the gateway of Valley militancy because the militants generally use its mountain passes to enter the Valley or to leave for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for arms training. There have been countless encounters between the security forces and militants in the district, which is almost entirely mountainous.

The Telegraph, 5 April, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110405/jsp/nation/story_13811520.jsp


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