Under the ?Operation Sadbhavana?, the Army has taken up the task of rehabilitating terrorism-affected children of Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from starting its own residential schools, the Army has sought the help of social organisations for this cause. Under the project, 57 such children were handed over to Sewa Bharati, Delhi, on June 25 for their education and proper bringing up. Some more children are expected to be handed over to Sewa Bharati next month.
When these children belonging to Riyasi, Buddhan, Mool, Mohar and some other adjoining areas of Udhampur (J&K) reached Delhi, they were accorded a warm welcome. Having bright dreams in their eyes for future, these children, before being affected by terrorism, were studying at various Urdu and English-medium schools in Udhampur. There are nine girls and more than two dozen Muslim children also in this group. Most of the children are between the age-group of 6 and 16 years. Most of the children in this group have lost many of their family members because of terrorism.
Despite living in the shadow of terrorism, these children are not frightened. They are full of confidence. After completing their education, most of them want to join the Indian Army. Shafaqat Ahmed, a 10th standard student, who came from Ghul, lost his father, uncle and grandmother in February 2004. But he still wants to completely eliminate terrorism from J&K.
The major concern of most of the terrorism-affected families has been the future of their surviving children. Major D.R. Sharma informed that the Army with the cost of 1,87,00,000 is going to set up four boarding schools in Udhampur. One of them is almost ready in Riyasi. He pointed out that Sewa Bharati is the first social organisation that has been involved by the Army to help the terrorism-affected families.
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