If Marx woke us up to socio-economic splits that we now know as class division, there are some lines that are drawn by geography. Over these lines we then find a juxtaposition of different political, economic, and societal divisions.
The people living beyond these lines are victims of multiple discriminations. They are least important when it comes to development schemes.
They are always least considered when market priorities are drawn. They are always in the back of beyond when political optics works in larger sense. These are the people who avail the least of the infrastructure in eduction sector.
These are the people living in far flung areas of J&K, and are destined to live a life of near isolation from the actual hustle and bustle of development that goes on in towns and cities.
The plight of these people becomes visible only when some disaster hits them in the shape of landslides, accidents, floods, cloudburst or some infectious disease.
We experienced just some time back in one such area in south Kashmir many people died because of a cloudburst and despite all attempts not even the dead bodies could be fished out from the waters. Though the governments time to time have tried to lift these people up from the morass of poverty by affirmative actions, but the benefit of such policies is always confined to a few.
And those chosen few then settle in town and cities and abandon these areas. That way the purpose of such legal and administrative actions is defeated.
What can actually change the fate of these people in a meaningful way is the development of infrastructure. These people have a right to good healthcare facilities.
They must have quality schools. And above all we need to connect these areas through dependable roads with the towns and cities around. Nothing changes the fate of any area as does the connectivity. Once their isolation ends, the benefits of the development will start travelling to these unfortunate people.