India - Jammu & Kashmir: Women’s Rights

June 2, 2008 - (Global Human Rights Defence) India ratified the CEDAW on the 9th July 1993. However, the situation for women in Jammu and Kashmir is poor, with the women suffering from both physical and emotional traumas.

The division of Kashmir has left many Indian-controlled Kashmir women (more or less 300) with husbands on the other side of the militarized zone. Those women endure official suspicion and harassment by the authorities who accuse their husbands of being involved in the insurgency. Moreover, they are unable to successfully apply to the local authorities for a passport or permit to cross the so-call Line of Control, as they are considered to fall within the group of people whose applications should be blocked either for being a separatist, suspected separatist or for being related to a separatist.

According to the Association for Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), an independent group in Kashmir, of the 10,000 people gone missing since 1989 when the conflict between Indian army troops and militant separatist started, at least 2000 were married men. The majority of their wives come from lower-income families and were entirely dependent on their husbands. Without proof of being widowed, many of the women are unable to remarry.

Indeed the majority of half-widows are Muslim, and according to Muslim Personal Law, a person cannot be declared dead for seven years after disappearance. In addition, before the end of this seven year period, a man's property cannot be disposed of. Thus most half-widows are denied their inheritance rights leaving them with few resources to look after their families.

Women and children whose husbands/fathers have been killed by the insurgency (25,000 to 30,000 according to the Public Commission on Human Rights (PCHR)) are left in a position of extreme vulnerability since they were so dependent on them.

One out of every three Kashmiri women in the refugee camps have multiple signs of deteriorating health, including premature aging, unnatural death, higher incidences of serious and potentially fatal diseases and affliction, with multiple disease syndromes. These women are suffering from the trauma of a forced exodus and the exposure to an alien and hostile environment. This is further compounded by problems of acclimatisation, lack of basic amenities like drinking water, drainage and sewerage, absence of proper lavatory facilities, poor housing, over-crowding, extremes of climate, lack of healthcare, idleness, depression, disease and death.

From:http://www.ghrd.org/default.asp?ID=2923