EDUCATION SYSTEM: VICTIM OF MILITANCY
“Mushtaq bhaijaan, bitiya ko kahaan bhej rahe hain” I was perplexed as I heard such a bizarre question from Irshad, who could clearly see Nusrat, my beloved daughter carrying her school backpack on her shoulders. “Irshad bhai, school ka bag lekar to bachche school hi jaate hain” I replied with a sarcastic grin. “Main to mazaak kar raha tha, par ye bataayein school me bhejkar kya kar paayegi Nusrat, waise bhi yahaan school 4 mahine to barf ki wajah se aur 4-5 mahine hartal aur militancy ki wajah se band hi rahte hain. Aise me kya seekh paayegi Nusrat” I could now understand the initial bizarre statement of Irshad and this zoned me out for some time. After a silence of few seconds, Irshad was vocal again “Maine kuchch galat kahaa kya bhaijaan”? “Nahi Irshad bhai, I am actually amazed at the plight of our schools and colleges. We have good schools, we have satisfactory infrastructure and we have excellent children but still when I compare our schools and colleges with schools and colleges in other states of our nation, I feel we are no match to their standards and the only reason I can think of is our corruption and the militancy, otherwise you tell me how is it possible that our education system is still not able to compete with the education system of other states of our nation, when all of us achieved independence together in 1947.” I finally paused after a long monologue. “Exactly Mushtaq bhai, this is the sole reason, I have avoided sending my children from going to schools. Since the start of the militancy in Kashmir, I have seen and heard of numerous educational institutes being burnt to ashes by militants and their like minded friends. Teachers have been threatened not to teach, young boys have been misguided towards the path of militancy in the colleges and girls have been threatened not to participate in any kind of extra curricular activity. So, I think that my decision of not sending my children to school was a wise decision. At least I have saved my children from any harm.” Irshad too finished his monologue. The conversation was beginning to pick up tempo. A lot of other neighbours too hudled around as this is the natural norm in our villages when people don’t have much work to do. Everybody had an opinion and everybody unanimously shared the same thought as me and Irshad. This is very rare to see that everybody has the same opinion about something. “Irshad bhaijaan, aapki baat bilkul sahi hai, if we had not let these militants thrive, if we had not allowed them in our villages, if we had realised how difficult could our lives be because of militancy, if we were aware of the real face of militancy, we would have never allowed them.” contributed Ghulam who had just joined the conversation. “Aur kya, agar ye militancy na hoti to hamaare bachche bhi achchi taleem hasil karte, wo bhi apne khwab poore karte, kahi mulazim bante, ham bhi khush rahte aur wo bhi.” Bilal also entered the conversation. “Education gives sobriety to the young, comfort to the old, riches to the poor and is an ornament to the rich. Despite being aware of all the benefits of being educated, I chose to keep my children uneducated. It is better not to send children to school than to lose them forever.” Irshad spoke to the keen listeners. “My daughter and my son are my world, I can never bear losing my children, these militants have been threatening to go for a leg shot if girls participate in any cocurricular activity. We are in 21st century and they are trying to pull us back to 70s and 80s. These days girls are reaching new heights, making their own name in the society, reaching levels that men took years to reach, making their family proud and these militants are shattering dreams of not only young boys and girls but also of their parents.” One could see the pain and the anger inside Irshad as he continued. “Irshad, you remember we were four best friends in college, You, me, Qaiser and Tahir. Qaiser and Tahir were such good human beings but they fell to militancy for money and lost their lives. We had lost so many gullible young bright friends, seniors and juniors of ours during college and school days and their families till date regret sending them to college. Irshad, as you were speaking, the memories of Qaiser and Tahir were coming to my head. It still haunts me and I often go back down the memory lane to those good old days with Qaiser and Tahir, but now we just have the memories of them. Militancy took away their lives” My eyes were welling up as I spoke. “I have no doubt that militancy has taken a heavy toll on our lives, on our children’s lives and our education system has been delibrately targeted because the militants and their sympathisers are aware that if people are uneducated, they are more gullible and easy to misguide and if our children become educated, they will indirectly gain moral and social values and any sane educated person would never choose the path of violence and terror” Ghulam explained. “We all are victims of militancy in one way or the other, directly or indirectly but Irshad if we don’t send our children to school out of fear of militancy, then we are indirectly supporting it by making our children vulnerable, by keeping them gullible and naïve, by not giving them the exposure and the opportunity they need. I would never want my child to stay at home just because there are militants and their supporters out there searching for one more gullible boy who they can misguide towards death. I would rather want my children to face such people and look these militants in the eye and say that they are not the ones who can be misguided to be used as a pawn. My children will go to school and will get the best of the taleem both at school and at home. I want the haunting memories of Qaiser and Tahir to go away from my head and that is possible only if I allow my children to be so educated that this militancy does not find another gullible boy in them.” I felt extra energetic and at peace as I was doing another monologue. “Sahi kaha Mushtaq bhaijaan” Ghulam with his glistening eyes spoke. “Mushtaq bhaijaan, kaash ye baatein hamne pahle ki hoti, I feel I’m taking away a lot from my children. I feel I’m making them weak by not giving them the power of education.” “The sooner one understands, the better it is, Irshad, you are not very late to understand all this, your children are still very small, they can begin now also” I put my hand on Irshads shoulder as I tried to console him. “Arey, Nusrat apna tiffin ghar par hi bhool gayi, zara usko school me dekar aajaao” my beloved wife shouted from the window of our house. “Mushtaq bhai chalo main bhi chalta hoon aapke saath school, admission aur fees ka bhi pata kar loonga isi bahane” Irshad smiled as we moved towards my house to fetch the tiffin for Nusrat. “Chalo milte hain shaam ko, office se aane ke baad” I spoke to the rest of the friends standing there as Irshad & I left the place.
