Google “Kashmir’s Fertility rate” and you get:

  • Late marriages
  • High female literacy
  • Government-run family planning programs
  • Endometriosis
  • Unhygienic menstrual practices

Increased use of medicines & various substances, use of chemicals over natural attenuation and increased stress levels are main factors contributing to low fertility rates in a country but what is going on specifically in kashmir with it’s natural bliss,
richer and healthier lifestyle?
Decrease in TFR is usually an indication of growth in a society, better quality of life as well as economic prosperity but none of these are seen in kashmir and this might be the most alarming thing to focus on yet is negleted or unnoticed.

Urban areas now having TFR of 1.2 and rural 1.5, 35% women and 45 % men dealing with fertility problems. Steepest decline of TFR in our nation.
From 4.5 in 80’s to 1.5 in 2020. Why and how ?

As a local i can tell you my fair share of insights but here are some stories that might give us a deeper understanding of what might be the underlying cause mean while.

This topic won’t be in news channels or highlighted on social media because when kashmir is mentioned, kashmiris are the least interesting topic to discuss.

Mimetic Desires & Financial Pressure

Since childhood i’ve always questioned things and cultural shifts.
If you ask yourself what things you want right now, you will realize most of them are general wants ( almost everyone wants them ) like the latest iPhone or a specific car or maybe you want to be good at something that maybe you don’t even actually like.
So are these things everyone wants actually what you want or is it validation ?

But why how?

Sense of belonging? Clinical psychology says, most of our desires aren’t even our own. Deep down every human being needs connection, sense of belonging to a community. Most of our desires are rooted in this since early childhood.

White collar

Around 4am, lastweek i hopped on a call with an old friend. This guy currently lives in Melbourne, so naturally he must have beeen awake, he recently completed his master’s and now, is looking for a job there. Since companies have to pay more for immigrant employee and they prefer hiring local ones, after talking about how he is doing and stuff going on in his personal life we discussed how there is no advancement or any future in kashmir’s job market. He told me his dad came to visit him for the first time so he was busy showing him around. This guy’s parents are doctors here and he said drug abuse is on rise and health is declining in kashmir,
New casualties are emerging and more common now…

So where am i going with this? This is not about how there is no time for bonding or forming genuine connections or life moves fast today. My friends who have moved out or travel alot, almost all of them agree on kashmiri obsession of constructing or owning a house and organizing a big wedding, there is nothing else to life to live for. The friend i mentioned above, he also told me how his father has bought and sold couple properties and they’ve relocated couple of times, “what for?” he said, Now he lives in an empty house.

This story is followed by everyone but what has shifted society’s focus from building a healthy home to constructing a bigger house?

Mindset shift and pressure of having these “culture made prerequisite for marriage” not only delays it but affects mental and physical health adversely.

Blue collar

Met this guy sitting next to jehlum, his cat got our conversation started and he told me how he has been supoorting his family since 14. He doesnt get much time off from his restaurant job so he takes his cat outside during lunch breaks and only gets to spend 4 days in a month back home.

Same story goes for many professionals who leave kashmir.

Solo living not only affects your mental health but also takes away the luxury of extended family’s care which contributes to marriage and child-care support complicaices. Having spent most of my life with my grandparents, i’ve always heard stories of how everyone used to live together and every family had more than 3 kids. Everyone treated all the kids in family as their own. Now having 3 kids is considered as being lucky.

Education and Employment

will write..

Cultural deformation

will write..

lorem epsum ignore this:

  • shrinking workforce
  • laziness of people
  • local barber shop (umer)
  • dutch disease
  • Human resource part of kashmiris

how has kashmir evolved and in what ways should we care?

  • work force reduction
  • access to knowledge ( singapore)
  • more manual work (outsiders work here)

fertility declines in many European countries led to a fall in the proportion of younger people, causing labour shortages that forced them to import labour through immigration, bourgeois