In Sickness And In Debt

A carpenter skipping meals so his wife can take her heart medication. A mother in Kupwara unable to treat her child’s chest infection. A family selling land to pay for an MRI. These are not stray stories.

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This is the harsh reality of healthcare in Kashmir, a reality where getting sick doesn’t just threaten your health, but your entire economic stability.

Despite the promise of universal health coverage through schemes like Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT, the ground truth is grim. Medicines are growing costlier, private healthcare is unaffordable, and government hospitals are buckling under the pressure of too many patients and too few doctors. For a region already reeling under an unemployment crisis, the burden of medical costs is quietly breaking families.