In Kashmir's village of widows, women vote to change their fortunes

The narrow road, dotted with street urchins, wound through the mountains with their sagging, bare-branched poplars. Women, many of them widows, dressed in embroidered pherans (a loose gown used during winter) headed to the polling booths to exercise their franchise.

At the polling booth, 65-year-old Fatima Bi, surrounded by her grandchildren, eagerly awaited her turn to cast a vote. "I want peace, prosperity and help for the widows of this village," she said.

Twenty years ago, Fatima Bi's husband Vilayat Shah, a militant, had surrendered before security forces and had begun eking out a livelihood by grazing cattle. But fate had other things in store for him.

"One day in 1993, when he had gone to graze cattle in the jungles near the border, he was shot dead by unknown gunmen. Since then we have not even got trace of his body," she lamented.

Two years after her husband was killed, fresh tragedy struck Fatima Bi, when her militant son Maroof Shah was killed by security forces. "His widow remarried. Later, his two-year-old physically-challenged daughter also passed away due to illness," she said.

Fatima Bi is just one of the 217 widows in the village of Dardpora, which has earned the sobriquet of 'the village of widows'. 172 of these women were widowed in the army-separatist conflict.

Once dreaded for being 'Chhota Pakistan' (mini-Pakistan), Dardpora, a village 120 kilometres north of Srinagar, was once the base camp of the militants crossing the Line of Control (LoC).

The militants, who belonged to the Al Barq and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen outfits, were later eliminated by the security forces who launched an unsparing bid to clear the area.

Some of the militants surrendered, then fell to the bullets of their erstwhile comrades. Even civilians became the victims of violence in a tale of tragedy and trauma.

Hundreds of widows had to pay a huge price for the follies of their husbands. Some of the widows, whose husbands were once powerful commanders, resorted to begging to feed their families.

Forty-year-old Razia Begum's husband was killed six years ago. Since then she begs to eke out a living for her family of five.

"My elder son moved out after his marriage. I have to feed my five kids. People are helping me to meet my family's needs," she says.

Villagers say the women are voting in the hope of a better future. "Nobody has taken care of these widows. They vote in the hope that good days will come," said Bashir Ahmad Khwaja, a villager.

Like other villages in Kashmir, Dardpora, too, has been the victim of the government's apathy. "There is no water supply. We are using the water from a canal in this 21st century. During summers the canal dries up, and we have to walk two km to fetch water. Medical facilities are just a mirage," said Bashir Ahmad Mir, another villager.