Compendium on Best Practices (2012-2013)

Abstract

Social exclusion has become one of the important themes in contemporary social policy all over the world. While there is a considerable debate about the precise meaning of the term and some of the most useful definitions have sought to emphasize that social exclusion is concerned with the ‘inability to participate effectively in economic, social, and cultural life and, in some characteristics, alienation and distance from mainstream society. In contrast to poverty and unemployment which focus on individuals or households, social exclusion is primarily concerned with the relationship between the individual and society, and the dynamics of that relationship. In fact, in many ways, it appears useful to emphasize similarities between the debates about social exclusion and the debates about the barriers generated by disability. In the latter case, it is well recognized that some physical or mental disability can generate a powerful barrier to the ability to interact with society and that the state has some obligation to reduce or remove these barriers. In a similar way, one can see social exclusion among non-disabled groups as socially generated barriers that reduce the ability of the excluded individuals to interact with society. Applying ‘social exclusion’ to children necessitates further considerations. Since children are citizens who are entitled to rights and capabilities in their own right, ‘social exclusion’ is an issue violating their rights and capabilities directly, which is recognized in the Convention of the Rights of the Child and national legislation governing the rights of children (UNICEF, 1989; BMFSFJ, 1998). At the same time, since children are growing to be adults, and decisions, choices, and opportunities in childhood will crucially affect their position as adults, the impact of their economic, social, educational, and psychological development on their status as adults will have to be examined as well. The armed conflict in Kashmir from the last 22 years has resulted in about 100,000 orphans who are confronted with a range of issues like deprivation of education, livelihood, health care and above all stigma attached to being an orphan. The condition of orphans whose fathers were militants have to face a lot of discrimination in getting support in comparison to other orphans. The orphans are only discriminated and deprived of their rights because their fathers or other relatives were militants. This is due to lot of reasons, the primary ones being that government does not provide much support to orphans who are children of militants and government of Jammu and Kashmir provides some ex gratia relief to dependents of people who get killed in the armed conflict but in the case militants the family of the deceased suffers a lot. The armed conflict has also taken a heavy toll on the mental health of people particularly women and children. In 1980, 8-10 patients per year on an average visited the Government Psychiatric Hospital for the treatment of depression, but the number rose to 18,000 in 1994 and to about 50,000 in 2008. There is an enormous stigma attached to any mental illness in the Kashmiri society. The stigma is even more with girls who are unmarried as the parents think taking the girl to psychiatrists is inviting unwanted questions from the society. People with mental illness are secluded and treated with much contempt. A mere visit to Psychiatric hospital is associated with a lot of questioning from the people. The number of children with mental health issues is high but due to the stigma and to avoid to get secluded from the society the parents ignore such illness. There are also a sizeable number of children who are disabled owing to the direct exposure to armed violence and they are subjected to neglect, exploitation and discrimination not only at the hands of the society at large but from parents as well.