COMBATING COLD
Kashmir Life|February 07, 2021
Unable to move back to warm places owing to financial constraints, many nomadic families were stuck in Kashmir this winter. As cold snap hits severely, the impoverished nomads caught in the crisis shiver in tarpaulin tents, reports Yawar Hussain
Yawar Hussain
COMBATING COLD

As Valley shivers with extremely cold weather, dozen-odd families in south Kashmir’s Awantipora, are braving the chill inside tarpaulin tents.

Zareena Akhter, 27, a Bakerwal woman says that she sleeps with her daughter, Akhter (5), and son Showkat (3) to keep them warm at night when the temperatures plummet several notches below the freezing point.

She along with many others couldn’t go back to warm Rajouri where others from the community migrated, owing to financial constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Throughout the night I keep asking my half-asleep children if they are feeling warm,” she says adding that the government’s relief for four of them is just one blanket.“They aren’t accustomed to the cold weather of Kashmir and back in Rajouri the weather is warm.”

Akhter says they had to go foraging for items to build their tents.

“We bought something from the market. We couldn’t afford everything. Then we had to go looking around to collect other things,” she says adding that many people helped them. “I am hopeful that this winter passes so that we can reunite this year with our relatives who could manage to reach Jammu”.

She says her husband goes looking for work every day and if lucky returns with some money to feed the family. Akhter, however, is scared for her children after she learnt that two nomadic children died due to the cold at Kulgam.

“I heard they were living in similar conditions like us,” she says while firing up Chulha (clay stove).

This story is from the February 07, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the February 07, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM KASHMIR LIFEView All
Before The Kabul Retreat
Kashmir Life

Before The Kabul Retreat

Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes

time-read
10 mins  |
August 22, 2021
FINGERS CROSSED
Kashmir Life

FINGERS CROSSED

Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch

time-read
5 mins  |
August 22, 2021
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
Kashmir Life

Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar

The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.

time-read
1 min  |
August 22, 2021
MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Kashmir Life

MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE

Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years

time-read
7 mins  |
August 22, 2021
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Kashmir Life

THE KABUL SPILLOVER?

Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani

time-read
10+ mins  |
August 22, 2021
Durga Bhawan At Katra
Kashmir Life

Durga Bhawan At Katra

To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.

time-read
1 min  |
August 22, 2021
Women Empowerment
Kashmir Life

Women Empowerment

In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.

time-read
1 min  |
August 22, 2021
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Kashmir Life

‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'

Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women

time-read
9 mins  |
August 22, 2021
Boredom Is Creative?
Kashmir Life

Boredom Is Creative?

Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain

time-read
4 mins  |
August 15, 2021
LG In Bangus
Kashmir Life

LG In Bangus

Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.

time-read
1 min  |
August 15, 2021