Kashmir's Ageing Challenge

While the valley debates jobs for the young, an ageing population is living alone, unsupported, and unseen.

- Aksa Muzamil

In a Srinagar neighbourhood, an elderly woman begins her day alone. Her children work in the Gulf, and call when they can. She relies on neighbours and routine for meals, medicines, and errands.

Stories like hers are no longer rare, whether in city lanes or rural villages.

As young people leave Kashmir for work, parents and grandparents are left behind. Public conversations often focus on youth unemployment, while older residents are barely noticed.

But beyond buzz and brouhaha, a silent shift is happening in the valley, reshaping family life, work, and care.

Jammu and Kashmir is living longer and having fewer children. People aged 60 and above made up about 8 to 9 percent of the population in 2023.

By 2036, this share is expected to rise to nearly 15 percent.

Youth migration speeds this up, leaving fewer working adults at home.

Falling birth rates make things harder.

At roughly 1.4 children per woman, Kashmir is well below what is needed to replace its population.

Even if fewer young people left, smaller families would still leave fewer hands to look after older parents.

Unemployment pushes this cycle further. More than 370,000 young people were registered as unemployed by November 2025. Many move to big cities or abroad.

The result is a thinning middle layer.

The valley is slowly filling with children and the elderly, while working-age adults disappear.