If you want to destroy a nation, then you should wall off its youth so much that they lose their thinking capacity and understanding and run out of their endurance level.

All this is happening to the sixty-five percent youth population of Jammu and Kashmir, which is suffering from such mental degradation and demotivation due to the new reservation policy of the central government that hundreds are planning to leave their education and start wandering in search of modest jobs, that, too are not available to them. Is this the way to care for the population that is considered the nation’s future?

Youth associations claim the BJP government deliberately blocks opportunities for open-merit students to shift population proportions in J&K.

The youth of Jammu and Kashmir is currently fighting on many fronts. The first challenge is ten percent of the total population of JK, i.e. one million, have been made or become addicted to drugs. JK, once a drug-free region, has no idea where the drugs come from, who supplies or how young people get them so quickly.

Secondly, 23 percent of the youth are unemployed because hardly anyone has been given employment for the last decade. Now, the new reservation laws have marred open-merit students’ opportunities.

After the decision to abolish internal autonomy on August 5, 2019, the BJP-led government made new rules to provide more seats in education and employment for backward classes, scheduled castes, and lower castes, according to which only 30 percent of the seats are available for 70 percent open-merit students, while a policy has been made to provide 70 percent of the seats for 30 percent backward and other classes—the claim many open-merit students make against the BJP.

Recently, when the government invited applications for a few medical seats, only a few were reserved for open, deserving students. In contrast, seats more than their population were reserved for backward classes. The youth of JK have been protesting in the streets, but hardly anybody in the hybrid government cares to listen to it seriously or redress the issue.

Many youth associations say that the BJP government deliberately implemented this policy to block educational and employment opportunities for meritorious youth. They claim that the BJP intends to shift the proportion of the population here to the minority by providing jobs to non-Kashmiris from outside. Earlier, political parties accused the BJP of demographic changes in the Muslim-majority region by introducing the domicile law after its internal autonomy was scrapped.

Over one million youth in Jammu and Kashmir are unemployed, making it one of India’s most job-deprived regions.

Asghar Ali, a leader of one of the youth associations, says that in Jammu and Kashmir, the backward classes or OBCs are less than 32 percent of the total population in JK, which had ten percent reservation for Gujjars and other backward classes. It was further increased recently to get votes in the hilly areas of Kashmir.

All Bakerwals in the hilly community were included in the new reservation policy. Despite this, the BJP did not get votes, so opportunities for intelligent and open-merit students have been limited. Many meritorious candidates have decided to leave higher education because they do not hope to get their dream jobs.

The region’s youth ask why the government is against open-merit students. ‘When we took up arms to achieve our political rights, we were labeled as terrorists. Suppose we want to get a job on merit after getting an education. In that case, those paths are blocked, and even the few vacancies that are available for employment are filled by residents of other states of India or the youth from affluent backgrounds who exploit the new rules by claiming to be backward classes. Can there be such a big punishment for being intelligent or diligent?’ Asad Mirza, from Jammu, retorted with anger.

Given the strong objections the open merit youth raised, the recently elected National Conference government has formed a committee to investigate the issue. Still, students object by saying that most members belong to the backward classes and hardly anyone would do justice to open merit candidates.

How ironic that the National Conference won the parliamentary seat of South Kashmir with the votes of the backward classes, where a large population of Gujjar and Pahari communities live. Until the elections, the party remained deliberately silent on the reservation policy. Even after forming a committee, it has not taken any solid action that would have relieved the anxiety of the meritorious people.

Only 30% of educational and job seats are now available for 70% open-merit students under the new reservation policy

No one is against the welfare of Scheduled Caste tribes or providing them with more opportunities, but if they are already being given privileges, thanks to the reservation policy of the Central government, what is the purpose of making another separate policy for Jammu and Kashmir which has seen the alarming rise in unemployment and scarce in the job market already?

Youth activist Zubair Ahmed says, “BJP has made policies to divide the people of Jammu and Kashmir into different ethnic minorities after its communal politics to win elections. Kashmiri political parties are taking advantage of this ‘define and rule’ policy. No one cares about the youth or open-merit students. Perhaps this is a deliberate attempt to prevent this region’s youth from getting an education and limit themselves to the labor class. They bring outside youth to work in this region and impose them on us so that our population ratio will automatically decrease, which has been a long-standing agenda of the BJP’.

Some youths claimed that applying this policy differs between Jammu and Kashmir. Here, Muslim youth are being eliminated based on religion. However, young activist Vinkal Sharma from Jammu rejects this notion and says that regardless of religion, the entire region suffers equally from this policy. ‘We should reject such arguments being spread to divide us on a communal and ethnic basis. We request that the government employ youth under the old policy or admit them to different institutions until the new policy is thoroughly reviewed and corrected.

Youth associations have joined political parties and civil societies to raise this issue in every forum. However, both parties in Kashmir, the National Conference, and the PDP stand by the central policies while in power. People are mocking their policy of making noise in opposition, although National Conference MP Agha Ruhullah has repeatedly raised this issue in various forums, including in Parliament.

According to social media activist Abdur Rehman,  ‘Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP has recently raised the issue of youth in JK.  It was she who deprived thousands of youth of their sight by throwing pellets at them and then accused them of going to the army barracks to get milk or toffee, from where they were attacked with bullets and pellets. It is unfortunate for Kashmir that our political parties stand up for the policies of the central government and never stand by their people, be it their lives, employment or open merit’.

Mention must be made here that more than one million youth are currently unemployed in Jammu and Kashmir, the first among India’s three unemployed states. Due to the lack of vacancies in the last decade, fifty percent of the unemployed have crossed the age limit set for employment in government offices.

Although recently, the local government has increased the age limit, and of whatever vacancies are available, seventy percent go to the backward classes. This is against the Supreme Court’s 1992 Mandal decision in which only fifty percent reservation was recommended for the backward and other classes.

Despite protests, political parties have failed to address youth concerns effectively, prioritizing central government policies over local welfare.

Youth associations have been forced to take up this issue in the judiciary, and it is hoped that it will be resolved as a priority. However, the process takes years for the judiciary to resolve it.

In the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, only about twenty percent of the population belongs to the backward classes. Yet, the reservation policy gives them more than seventy percent of the seats in employment and other institutions.

Many deserving students are in a desperate and uncertain situation and are falling into the hands of the Union Territory’s hybrid system of government.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.