They are pushed aside by their in-laws, shunned by neighbors, exploited by employers and harassed by security officers…every morning they hope of seeing a clear light of the day, a time when their long lost would surface from ‘somewhere’ and would pulsate the long awaited family with his mere presence…but unfortunately this is nothing more than an illusion, just an oasis in the endless deserted life for them…they are Kashmir’s ‘half-widows’, 2,000 women whose husbands never returned home after security forces took them away for questioning as suspected separatists.
Questions about their whereabouts are still lingering around,
where are they? Are they still alive or has the monster of death engulfed them, no one knows! Yet the wives are keeping hope against hope for their coming.
The expanse that lies between India and Pakistan has witnessed
infinite deaths. Innumerable natives have vanished, presumed killed or imprisoned without trial or record. And amongst these things, women have become ‘the worst sufferers’ who are subjected to pay a huge price as they are lost in the limbo between missing and confirmed death.

Unfortunately, India remained so busy crushing militancy that the innocents were almost forgotten. If we talk about the authorities well, the government has offered aid to 400 half-widows while Pervez Imroz, the president of the Coalition of Civil Society, says, 85% of the half widows still are far from any kind of compensation.

The present generation has seen Kashmir only as a war zone. Children all over the world who are living through conflicts — in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Iraq or earlier in Vietnam — are growing up confused. But unlike those battlegrounds, where agencies like UNICEF and who are able to assess the damage and provide relief to the children, in Kashmir there are hardly any NGOs in this field. Instead, everywhere, there is bitterness and desperation, coupled with apprehension regarding future.

Women are coping with mental trauma, economic hardships and
the hard struggle to rebuild their lives and homes. Only hope keeps them going. Hope that their husband and sons would come back one day so that they could experience the lost familial beat pulsating in their life too.
Has the valley which was once an epitome of ‘paradise on earth’ nothing to offer to these ‘half-widows’? The question still continues…