Education is the key to civilisation development as it communicates all past experiences and achievements to the subsequent generations and equips them with the necessary skills and methodologies to build on those to ensure consistent socio-political evolution pivotal to progressive forward march of mankind. Education enables a person to discover himself, harness his potential, raise his socio-political awareness and contribute positively to his personal life as well as his society through new ideas, inventions and discoveries curtsy his acquired rational, critical and imaginative thinking- education in essence is the engine of civilizational transformation. How unfortunate when the free civilised world is unfailingly investing in education ensuring vast opportunities for their children to acquire quality education, the helpless children of the occupied Kashmir are forced into ignorance by being deprived of their right to education as enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights only because by keeping the new generations illiterate, unskilled and backward, India wants to perpetuate and strengthen its colonial hold of the disputed, forcibly annexed and disenfranchised territory. The education system and its standards there have already dwindled because of decades of unremitting military repression manifested in so many ways like military operations, crackdowns, curfews, gutting and occupation of school buildings by security forces, constant long closures, curfews, lockdowns and communication shutdowns, however, of late the Modi regime has been creating huge hurdles for Kashmiri youth desiring to pursue professional or higher education outside India where the realisation of the dream they feel quite safe and affordable in stark contrast to the Indian landscapes which the Modi regime through its Hindutva goons has turned extremely inhospitable, hostile and malevolent for them. This deliberate denial of universally accepted right to education is arbitrary, immoral and tyrannical in nature and as such must be condemned by the free civilised world and the human rights groups quite vehemently.
The world community must come forward to the rescue of the deprived Kashmiri youth and force India to restore in full the children’s inalienable right to education and allow them exercise the fundamental freedom to travel to any place or country of their choice to further their studies as recognised and endorsed by the international community through many international covenants like Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Forsaking them to wreathe in pain and agony of their unfulfilled aspirations would only drive them to frustration, despondency, and indignation, and haunted by anxiety, depression, hopelessness and doom might end up seeking to avenge the injustice done to them through any extreme manner and none but the communal Modi regime in that case would be to blame. Kashmiri youth like the rest of the world as justice demands should have the right to pursue and choose the place or destination for their studies to be the master of their destiny and no double standards from the civilised and democratic world are expected in relation to helpless, fettered Kashmiri youth.