Cover 14 December, 2020 Issue
Brain Drain Hurting Kashmir Rameez Makhdoomi
Brain Drain since decades is wrecking havoc in the valley of Kashmir.It is worth pointing outhere that Brain drain is a slang term indicating substantial emigration or migration of individuals. A brain drain can result from turmoil within a nation, the existence of favorable professional opportunities in other countries, or from a desire to seek a higher standard of living.
The shifting to better places for employment is not only causing the brain drain meaning leaving of efficient human resources from native land in this case Kashmir bearing the brunt, but also causing pain and emotional trauma to the elders of families .
Change is the law of nature and Kashmir cannot be exception but since many years faster exodus to foreign lands is matter of great concern.
Syed Arshid Hussain Kashani, a writer and scholarly voices who ponders on this subject states :” Brain Drain is a very serious issue .There is a case of settling abroad in almost every locality now, with rest of family trying to adjust in the situation. We see a little jubilation in the beginning in most of the cases;however, the families with an old history of such development live in a different shade now. I few months back wrote how an uptown old couple wished to donate their entire property as despite huge properties because of well settled kids outside they had no one around when they needed them most. It was painful to note that the owner told the charity group that there was no dearth of money, he pleaded that he will be donating all his wealth provided in turn charity group will take care of them as long as they continue to live. This case is not exception but such cases and scenarios are now common thing throughout length and breadth of the Kashmir valley. “
Syed Arshad Hussain Kashani adds that to great worry settling abroad is now irresistible; parents and kids have almost surrendered on this issue. It has been found that settling abroad is usually one way traffic; you rarely return to attend your moral obligations and this trend is increasing.
The voices of sanity on ground state that if this phenomenon remains unchecked and more youngesters began to abandon their homes, the need for setting up old age homes may become a reality.All this will also hurt the overall talent pool of the Kashmir valley .For decades, Kashmir’ s skilled professionals have preferred emigrating to the Gulf or West in search of better jobs, lucrative salaries and higher standards of living. All this is causing loss of talented humans to Kashmir and in this regard the Government of Jammu and Kashmir should create widespread opportunities so brain drain of talented humans is stopped .