The Kashmir Career Crisis

Kashmiri students carry heavy expectations, but their degrees often lead to disappointment, not opportunity.

- Himayun Mukhtar Qureshi

On most days, the boy behind the counter barely looks up. He counts the money, puts the change on the desk, and calls the next customer. The shop belongs to his uncle, but the story belongs to him. A story of years spent in classrooms, of exams passed, of a degree earned. And now, of a deafening defeat.

He is one of many in Kashmir who walked the long road to higher education, only to find it led nowhere. You won't see his story in employment charts or in government updates about new job schemes. It’s written instead in the stillness of his eyes.

In schools across the valley, teachers speak in low voices about their former students. They come back with degrees in hand, looking not for work but for direction. A science topper now sells SIM cards. An arts graduate prepares for yet another exam, not out of hope, but habit. An engineering student drops out halfway through, tired of studying something he never wanted.