A first-hand account of two Jammu University Professors, who being women, have been victims of gross gender inequality in Jammu and Kashmir
Dr Anu Mankotia
I joined as an Assistant Professor in the History Department of the Jammu University on August 20, 2014, on contract basis. Before that, I used to teach at Dogra Law College, Bari Brahmana, Jammu.
In this private college, I taught for seven years between 2007 to 2014, whereas my class-fellows started working in different departments in the J&K government.
They could apply there readily but I did not have the option of applying in the state service as I was not having Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC). My mother was born and brought up in the state, in a village called Gurah Salathia, in the Vijaypur tehsil of Samba district.
Why could I not apply for the services in the state
government, at any level? My mother, Mrs Pawan Mankotia, got married in 1970 to Mr B S Mankotia of Nurpur area of Himachal Pradesh.
He was in the Corps of Signals and retired as an Honorary Captain after a service of over 30 years. He served for over a decade in the state of Jammu & Kashmir and his last posting was in Udhampur.
My maternal grandfather, Khajoor Singh, had served in the Army and retired as a Naib Subedar. My maternal uncle, B S Slathia, is a leading lawyer of the state and has just been elected as President of the Bar Association of Jammu (BAJ).
Most of my class-fellows are in the state services of the J&K government teaching in degree colleges and higher
secondary classes. Not me !
I have two brothers and a sister. My sister is married in Jammu city and has two children. They all have PRCs and are entitled to all the benefits that accrue to a Permanent Resident. My brothers, however, have not been issued PRCs just like me, and are thus forced to seek employment in the private sector.
All the men from J&K state, marrying outsiders, are placed much better than their female counterparts. Their spouses, all females, get PRC the moment they get married. So do their children.
The women of the state, on the other hand, the moment they get married to an ‘outsider’, find that their rights as a PRC holder are severely curtailed. Neither their spouse is given a PRC nor their children. There is thus one set of rules for governing men, and another governing women. Why so? Where is gender justice? Men and women are being treated differently and so flagrantly.
Renu Nanda
I have been a Professor in the Department of Education, Jammu University, Jammu. Since 1997 I have been working in the university since 1997.
As a single parent having two sons, my children have stayed with me right from their childhood. But they are denied employment opportunities in the J&K because they do not have Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) which is issued by the revenue department.
My paternal great grandfather, Lala Shiv Nath Nanda, was an unchallenged MLA for 37 years in the durbar of the Dogra royal family which ruled the state before 1947.
I am a resident of Jammu city, got married in West Bengal in the year 1983 and later my husband filed for divorce which was granted to him as ex party decision. I applied for the issuance of Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) for myself 10 years ago. At that time, Dr Pawan Kotwal, was Deputy Commissioner of Jammu. I met number of officers during this course. All assured me that my file pertaining to issuance of PRC will be processed “soon’’ but the PRC has eluded me so far.
Recently I met the Additional DC, Jammu, for this and he said that he would hold a meeting with me to discuss the matter threadbare. The day of the sitting “together’’ has not arrived till date. It is amazing that the officials cannot interpret a law, on State Subject, which was passed in April 1927, by Maharaja Hari Singh.
As a daughter of Jammu city, I do not have a domicile
certificate of any place technically. As the proof of domicile in the state of J&K is a PRC, not having a PR Certificate leaves me stranded.
Due to circumstances arising out of my divorce, I chose to return to the house of my parents in Jammu. Return I did, but found that the law on PRC being interpreted was in a manner by state officials that my chances were bleak, whether in getting any type of help from the state government or employment on its rolls.
My sons come to Jammu because I am in Jammu due to my job. But there is nothing to relate. This is because of the peculiar manner in which the laws relating to PRC are
interpreted to the disadvantage of women.
I wonder why I was born in Jammu & Kashmir, where women are treated so unfairly? I have no answers to my own questions.
(As narrated to Sant Kumar Sharma)
