After years of discrimination, two communities discover their voice in J&Okay politics

By Deepika Bhan

New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS): Two communities in Jammu and Kashmir will rejoice the Meeting elections, at any time when they’re held within the Union Territory.

After many years of discrimination and subjugation, the West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) and the Valmiki neighborhood have lots to cheer about.

It has taken 75 years for the WPRs and 65 years for the Valmiki neighborhood to lastly get voting rights in J&Okay and dwell with honour and dignity.

The WPRs comprise members of Hindu and Sikh communities, who migrated from Pakistan after Partition in 1947. As per official data, there are almost 5,400 households who migrated to the border areas of Jammu — to Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts. The neighborhood leaders say these households have now grown to over 22,000 households.

Aside from WPRs, there may be the Valmiki (Dalits) neighborhood. These have been dropped at J&Okay in 1957 from Punjab by the then state authorities headed by Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad to quell an indefinite strike by the native sweepers’ union.

The Valmikis have been dropped at Jammu by means of free transportation and got particular permits to enter the state. They have been even allotted land to assemble homes, however weren’t given everlasting resident certificates. They needed to abide by the situation that their future generations may keep in J&Okay in the event that they continued to be scavengers and sanitary employees.

For 65 years, this neighborhood has confronted discrimination by the hands of the state in Impartial India. They have been disadvantaged of the fitting to vote within the native and Meeting polls, proper to larger training, state scholarship, welfare schemes and the fitting to state jobs. Although they belonged to the SC class, they have been denied the standing.

As per the leaders of the Valmiki Samaj, at current round 10,000 folks belonging to the neighborhood are residing in numerous colonies in Jammu.

The neighborhood may take part within the Parliamentary polls however may neither contest or vote within the J&Okay Meeting elections.

All this modified after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, and the West Pakistani Refugees (WPRs) and the Valmiki neighborhood can now vote within the Meeting polls. They voted for the primary time through the District Growth Council (DDC) elections in 2020.

Each the communities can now apply for jobs in J&Okay, avail welfare schemes and might vote and likewise contest elections.

Each the communities blame the Kashmir-based events, which had an issue with giving them state topic certificates as they feared this might change the ballot dynamics.

Each the refugees and the Valmikis have flayed Kashmir’s political events for intentionally subjecting them to humiliation and discrimination for many years.

“It was state-sponsored discrimination which no one talked about,” they mentioned.

Labha Ram Gandhi, President of West Pakistan Refugees Motion Committee, mentioned, “We couldn’t get jobs, our kids couldn’t get into skilled schools. Now all the pieces has modified. We are able to vote and likewise contest elections.”

The areas the place they dwell lack improvement.

Labha Ram mentioned, “The native MLAs didn’t care about us as a result of we weren’t a vote financial institution for them. We’d be informed to go to the Centre for our issues. Now we will have our sarpanches additionally.”

Now freed of this bias, the WPRs and Valmikis say they’ll chart their very own course. They voted within the DDC elections and are wanting ahead to the Meeting polls, the place they will even have their say like the opposite lakhs of J&Okay electors.