Arshid Malik

That Day: Saturday morning, 25th of October, 2005, a major earthquake struck the India-Pakistan border, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale and was felt strongly in much of Pakistan, northern India and eastern Afghanistan and according to official estimates left some 80000 people dead and much greater a number injured, stupefied, orphaned and completely homeless. In Jammu and Kashmir alone, around 1000 (unofficial estimates) people were killed and hundreds were reported missing while some one lakh houses were totally or partially damaged.

The magnitude of the earthquake manufactured a tragedy of much greater magnitude which was n number of times multiplied owing to the official apathy of the State government. Though aid flowed in from all parts of the world, but very little of this reached those who deserved it. Scams were overtly operational as people devastated by the earthquake steadily crossed the thin line that segregates animation from death.

It was Saturday and all regular school-going children were inside their schools as roofs, walls and all that was meant to protect them, collapsed due to the impact of the high magnitude earthquake and killed most of them. While life was devastated in general, education also received a major jolt as most of the schools in the Valley and adjoining areas were levelled flat. Processes were underway to rebuild the schools and a lot of money flowed into the reconstruction. But again, our shady motives streaked out into the open and much of the reconstruction aid money flowed into the private coffers of the higher ups.

I remember the day the earthquake shook most of the subcontinent. While news about the massive loss of life and property jolted me with every passing hour, aftershocks crisped my anxiety. I remember my being agitated about the kids who were reported to have been trapped under debris. It was a totally helpless situation. The memories of this annihilating natural disaster continue to haunt me and the slightest movement of the bed wakes me up, all shaky and sweaty in the dead of the night. I believe that I developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the exact aftermath of the massive earthquake. And this is me, sitting miles away from the actual point of disaster and affected to such an extent. What about all those kids who were caught in “the eye of the storm”. It is a crisis that has not melted away yet and has left multiple scars on our population in general.  

This Day: Thursday, 10 February 2011 – The topping for the “cake” arrived much later, in the shape of news about extravagant embezzlements of funds in the reconstruction programme launched under the National Calamity Relief Fund (NCRF). A survey report titled “Evaluation Report on Damaged Infrastructure of Education Department reconstructed under NCRF” says “out of the released amount of Rs 3.28 crore, the executing agency has shown full expenditure whereas on the spot verification shows only an expenditure of Rs 2.34 crore… The department had proposed 251 school buildings, out of which 110 works were taken up and only 89 buildings have been repaired.”

Pathetic, isn’t it. We are building our pleasure mansions over the graves of dead kids. And I won’t say that the administration is responsible for all this, since the administrators are from among us. This is a failure for the whole population.  

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