They are not statistics. They are sons — educated, ambitious, and abandoned. Kashmir’s 370,000 registered educated unemployed is a national emergency in civilian clothes. Its 70,000 drug user – 79 percent male, 50000 are heroin users- did not choose desperation. They arrived at it precisely where unemployment, conflict trauma, and political paralysis converged. Delhi’s neglect built this vulnerability. No one else’s. Patriotism is not ceremony. It is a government that builds futures worthy of the loyalty it demands. Kashmir’s youth did not fail India. India has not yet kept its promise to them. Restore elections. Create jobs. Fund rehabilitation. The nation that asks these young men to choose must first give them reason to.
