Jammu & Kashmir Elections 2024: Voices Of People on Article 370, Unemployment And More (Handwara Town)

3 months ago

After 10 years, elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir, 5 years since the abrogation of Article 370.

As Northern Kashmir districts prepare for the final phase of the assembly election on October 1, we visited Handwara, one of J&K’s oldest towns to hear the voices of the people, from Article 370 to unemployment.

Election results will be announced on October 8.

In Video: Toibah Kirmani
Camera: Yasir Iqbal
Editor: Sudhanshu

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Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Toiba Kirmani from Outlook Magazine.

00:04Right now, we're in Hanwara.

00:05It's one of the oldest towns of Jammu and Kashmir, and this town has been a hub of political

00:10activities since 1931, when there was a statewide protest against the then Maharaja Hari Singh.

00:17This town is also part of the northernmost district of Kashmir, which is Kupwara, and

00:22the district on three sides is surrounded by a line of control, which separates this

00:27part of Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

00:31This district, along with other northern districts, Baramulla and Bandipora, are going to polls

00:36in the last phase of elections, that's on 1st October.

00:40So we have come on the ground to get the perspective of people on the election, assembly elections,

00:45which are happening after a gap of 10 years.

00:47And this is also the first election after the abrogation of Article 370, a lot has changed

00:53since then.

00:54A lot has been reduced to a Union Territory, in fact two Union Territories.

00:58It's lost this special status and the semi-autonomous status.

01:08All the issues are important for commons, all the people of the state, but it should

01:15not become the slogan of a political party, which has got abrogated by the central government.

01:25If they want to restore it, for that purpose, all the political parties have to unite with

01:31each other.

01:32Until and unless they will not unite, it seems impossible.

01:35The main issue right now will be, you know, the main issue, that's unemployment.

01:40There are hundreds and thousands and thousands of youth who are well-educated and doing nothing.

01:45They have got frustrated, right, and many of them have become drug addicts.

01:51It's a huge issue, it's a serious issue that needs to be taken care of.

01:55But the politicians you will see, you might have seen for a couple of days, that the politicians

02:00do not talk about it.

02:02They talk about only 370 and 35A, because they know that the Kashmiris are seriously

02:08attached with this article.

02:11So they want to exploit the situation.

02:15It is next to impossible to get article 370 and 35A back, as long as India is ruled by

02:20BJP and Modi ji and Amit Shah is there.

02:24So it's next to impossible to get it back.

02:27Now the people, now the politicians in the valley are befooling the people like they

02:31have been befooling for the last 70 years.

03:15I am a daughter, and how many daughters would be there who would be yearning to see their father?

03:20It is necessary for the elections to take place here, because the situation will improve a little here.

03:26The article that they are asking to come back, it doesn't make any difference to us whether

03:31it comes back or not.

03:33The unemployed boys here are addicted to drugs.

03:37Now if you go to someone and ask for a government job, they say that they can't give you a government job.

03:41As far as I am concerned, democracy is important in the elections.

03:47Just as it is important for a person to live in today's world, similarly democracy is important.

03:53Because we have seen in the last 10 years that people are suffering a lot without democracy.

03:59So there is a health issue here, there is unemployment here, the economic situation is bad here,

04:05people are very worried here, people don't know what to do.

04:10For this, I request the central government to pay full attention to Kashmir.

04:16Elections mean development in the people and in the area.

04:20To what extent will our youth represent themselves after winning the elections?

04:32If I talk about development, development is ongoing.

04:36If someone is constructing a road or building a bridge,

04:40the vote should be put on the education system here,

04:44which is the backbone of every community, every society.

04:48It is hoped that if there are elections, people will have some work.

04:54Now there is an LG sir sitting here, who will look after him?

04:58He has to do what is ordered from above.

05:02The problems of the people are the same.

05:05There are schools here, but only up to the middle level.

05:09There is one school in my locality, which is touching 10,000 people.

05:16And the second thing is that the population is large.

05:19So in the large population, it is obvious that there should be more schools.

05:24Growing up in Kashmir has been really confusing.

05:28As kids, we witnessed the Azadi movement.

05:31What do we want? Freedom.

05:33Fight for a separate country.

05:35Over time, things changed in multiple ways.

05:39And now we are at a point where Kashmir is no longer a state with special status,

05:46but a union territory.

05:48They say politicians are the only people in the world who create problems

05:53and then ask for votes to solve them.

05:57In Kashmir, that has always been the same.

06:03For more UN videos visit www.un.org

Jammu & Kashmir Elections 2024: Voices Of People on Article 370, Unemployment And More (Handwara Town)

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