Kashmir:Orphans,Nurture and Challenges

In Jammu and Kashmir, the past 26 years of armed conflict resulted in an alarming increase in the number of orphans. As survey conducted by Kashmir based voluntary organization puts the figure at 0.015 million in the category of armed conflict, other sources put the figure approximately 0.10 million without any special categorization. According to a rough survey 30% of the total population of orphans in Kashmir is of destitute as such mainstreaming of education to maximum orphans has got hampered due to bad economic condition of their families. Consequently, these children remain disturbed at home; going to school does not necessarily mean getting education. Thus Institutional care of orphans is a priority based work, in Kashmir there is no permanent organized and credible community based support system in place. This book gives a case study of orphans in Kashmir, their deprived childhood along with some recommendations to State, Orphanages and NGOs.