Apart from the 112 killings and hundreds of injured the five month long unrest has taken heavy toll on students and businesses forcing some to emigrate from Kashmir.
At least eight students of Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson Schools in Srinagar left the school to continue studies in schools outside Kashmir.
“Yes, we have issued them discharge certificates. They must have migrated to continue with their studies,” said Secretary Biscoe, Iqbal Ahmed.
Another school chain sent 200 of its students to its schools in New Delhi for about two months.
“The students of class 12th left for New Delhi as we were left with no option and now they are back,” says Damodar Singh, Managing Director, Delhi Public School (DPS), Srinagar. “We did not want to have their academic calendar suffer; and their parents are also satisfied,” he adds.
Aamina Shah, a class 10th student and a resident of Maisuma says that due to the summer unrest she was forced to go for coaching in Jammu. She returned to sit in the exams.
“It was the most difficult time to get adjusted outside in the mid of session. But I had no option,” she says. “But now I can’t face it anymore. Kashmir is very uncertain place so I had decided to completely migrate for further studies.”
Moreover, many students who were selected for various professional courses through common entrance test opted to study in colleges in Jammu region.
Dilafrose Qazi, Vice Chairperson, SSM Colege of Engineering and Technology, Parihaspora, says, “Compared to last year a huge chunk of students in various engineering courses were not comfortable in studying in the hostile environment of Kashmir. In this way the demand of Jammu colleges increased as many students preferred Jammu colleges over Kashmir.”
Recently established businesses had the highest impact of the long spell of curfews and shutdowns.
It took hectic efforts and lot of hardwork for Aijaz Ahmed Kachroo, a resident of old city, to become the commission and forwarding (C&F) agent of Zarine Business System, which deals with surgical and hospital supplies. “It was in the month of May, when I started work with full zeal. I started thinking big as I got offers from various private hospitals to supply surgical items,” he says.
But things started getting worse after the death of Tufail Matoo, on June 11. “Then I was even not able to open shop. One day, I tried to open shop to see whether my stock was OK, but a CRPF personnel deployed there did not allow that,” says Kachroo.
His venture was first of its kind to gets supplies of surgical items with C E markings. The CE marking is mandatory for products sold in European Economic Area (EEA). It also certifies that a product has met EU consumer safety, health or environmental requirements.
After investing more than Rs eight lakh, he was having a resounding business.
“I had an agreement with the company to give sales of around 5 lakh rupees a month. The starting months were so good that the turnover was around 10-12 lakh rupees,” he says.
The prolonged unrest saw his turnover go down to just Rs 75000 a month. He says he had to shift to Jammu to realize the previously agreed sales target.
Nadeem Qadri, 25, struck a deal with Kashmir Geographic Eco-Cooperative Limited (KGECL) in May this year to introduce Easy Shopping discount cards in Kashmir.
“The wheel of fate catapulted and I was left with no option but to shift my base to Jammu in June,” he said.
Easy Shopping discount cards allows customers to avail special discount on a wide-range of products and services on select product from select outlets.
Young executives, mostly in finance sector, are having a tough time as their employers were pressurising them to achieve targets. Many people in financial services have been fired by national companies for not performing, though the valley was under continuous curfews and strikes for most of the summer.
Twenty-seven year old Asim Rasool is a project sales officer in a private organisation. His company has given him a deadline to register sales of Rs 60 lakh in next six months.
“I am in a big trouble as the target given to me is almost impossible. I am about to lose my job,” he says. “Due to the company pressure I had even moved to Jammu. But the results again were not impressive due to the unknown market in Jammu. So I had to come back.”
The companies say that it is not viable to pay wages without business and many such companies are not paying salaries to their employees in Kashmir.
Another young executive working in the financial sector says, “We have only one option which is to work on commission basis. From last four months we have not been paid salaries and the bosses say it will remain suspended till we achieve our targets.”
Computer engineer Mukhtar Gani, fled to Mumbai after the company in Srinagar he was working for asked him to take a salary cut.
Ironically, the 25-year-old, who studied at Dehradun in north India had always wished to work in Kashmir and live with his parents. “Although, I had an opportunity to go overseas during my campus placement, I was never interested to work outside,” he says.
As per the official figures available with the government, 50,000 people have fled Kashmir due to current unrest. “50,000, not a joke. They left us and shifted to other states,” said chief minister Omar Abdullah recently.
