If an Indian Army unit is instructed to adopt a village and develop the dwellers then be rest assured that the job would be done in a superlative and impeccable mode!
These children of Dadhaki village in Doda may be deaf and dumb but they are still intelligent and they can go places! Mind you Helen Keller, Kitty’O’ Neil, Haben Girma and many others changed the world!
-‘We all know that it were the interiors of the entire J&K the flames of terrorism unleashed for fulfilling a vague dream had almost scared the people to their bones! In the great towns and cities of theNation we see so little of the world. Similarly most of us have not seen what happened in the last thirty years! We have only heard and read!’
-‘When you pass the house at the end of the village you leave your favourite whimsy behind you; for you will meet no one who can share it. We listen to eloquent speaking, read books and write them, and settle all the affairs of the universe. The dumb village multitudes pass on unchanging; the feel of the spade in the hand is no different for all our talk: good seasons and bad follow each other as of old! This was in reference to the context of W.B. Yeats wrote in his masterpiece, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore! Incidents of the past have been many but these people from the village Dadhaki in Doda district. For all the reasons that we could recollect, the Indian Army has crossed the line of Rubicon to assist the people who are impaired. No one likes to be classified in the category of ‘deaf and dumb’ but that is where the army stands out in a big way by going out of the way to help them!’
-‘Perched on the hilltop and nestled in the beautiful range of the Pirpanjals this tribal village exists and it is 105 km from Bhaderwah town, is home to 105 families. Of these, 55 families mysteriously have at least one person who can neither speak nor listen. There are 78 such people in the village, of which 41 are women and 30 children aged three to 15 years.’! Wish someone could carry out scientific research on this phenomenon. Someone no one has but it is a food for thought! Could be hereditary or could be a vicious strike by a strange and unfathomable disease!’
-‘Needless to mention it was a horror where bloodletting could happen any time and the people were being wasted as if they were just born to die when the ballistics were unleashed by the terrorista! Since this story is of Doda, I will be specifically concentrating on the same reason’!
-‘Massacres, shoot outs, killings, murders and rape were not common. Though stories emerged in the media and they made the headlines, cover stories but now they are all forgotten incidents of the past!’ Once a kind of thing!
-‘But a few in fact four still remember them by heart, the people, the men of Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and of course some research writers who love to meet the people and ask their problems. Between then and now there is a big difference. If the times gone by were horrendous, now the people are finding great hope in the sky line of PIrpanjals!
-‘We drift into our minority in towns and cities. In the little villages there are no minorities; people are not numerous enough! But they still need to be looked after! You must see the world there, perforce. Every man is himself a class; every hour carries its new challenge.’
-‘God gave us ground, we created a city, God gave us time and we need to create a future. The future of India depends on how we develop our villages and villagers. If the Indian Army has been tasked to get into the bolts, nuts and screws in the interiors then trust me the times ahead would be great for our villages in UT J&K though most of us may not live that long to see it happening!’
-‘It was a month later that after distributing hi-tech specialized hearing aids among the deaf and mute villagers of Dadhaki in Doda district, the Army went a step ahead and adopted the village to address the concerns of its people. The Rashtriya Rifles unit deployed there has adopted the village in order to ensure the overall welfare of the population, with multiple social security programs aimed at giving them the confidence to survive and make a living on their own.’
‘-We told you right at the beginning of the piece that if a job is undertaken by the Indian Army the thematic undercurrent would be sincerity to the massive cause undertaken! No one has done so before but the people who have been struck by blows to their physical existence should be positive because something exceptional is happening for them!’
By: M S Nazki
Jammu/Mendhar:
-‘Be transparent. Let’s build a community that allows hard questions and honest conversations so we can stir up transformation in one another. This is the basic formula that is followed in the Indian Army when it comes to Awaam-Jawaan relationship! That is exactly what happened in Dadhaki village! Make a commitment to serve the needs of the least privileged and give voice to the voiceless. That is another fundamental in this emotional relationship. The Indian Army knows that Darwin’s work is a testament to the power of two of the most basic tools used in research, the pencil and paper where the first lines have to be that you ought to be fit to survive and even if you are not we will still go out of the way to make you fit (we just gave a twist to the great mans lovely words, ’survival of the fittest’!
What the Army did at Dadhaki!
-In the first step, besides looking after their basic needs such as clothing, food and healthcare, the Army has begun door-to-door personalized teaching classes for the mute children by deploying sign language experts who have been specially trained in Telangana. This definitely is going to get the people closer to the rest of the Nation’!
-‘In the next step of the ongoing scheme, a school with a hostel facility will be provided in Dadhkai panchayat, he said. We want to help them in a comprehensive and long-lasting manner. To teach them the best possible sign language, two teachers were sponsored by the Army to get specialized training at Hyderabad and Secunderabad (Telangana) and now, the deaf and mute population is being taught by them at their homes.
-‘ I think it is inherent in humans to be driven by a cause. Dadhaki has an unmistakable charm. There is a subtle magic found in there. The earthiness, greenery, and fragrance of flowers, plants, fruits, and vegetables growing in the field is breathtakingly inimitable. Sitting in the lush green slopes, while gazing at the wide blue sky, amidst the farm animals and the simple houses in the background, is a joie de vivre. For sure they know now that the cause that they have given is just keep moving on!’ It’s only the Indian Army that can do that! They have done it over and over again!
-‘ An officer once told me that in places like that, the people have no silver, but they feed us at their own tables, though makeshift, and the children follow us everywhere, so cute and loveable! Oh! I got a bit nostalgic!’
-‘Bhalessa Block Development Council chairman Mohammed Hanief, a resident of Dadhkai, expressed gratitude to the Army for its continuous welfare efforts. ‘Whenever a woman conceives, not only the family but the entire village lives in constant fear of the offspring being deaf and mute. If it happens, it only increases miseries’, he said. This is a dreadful experience!
-‘ As per the people a number of government officials and NGOs visited the village in the last couple of decades, but nothing concrete was done . I told you in this very story earlier that great research work could get to the roots of the problem! It can be done then why not it be done!’
-The Army has initiated practical and systematic steps which will surely go a long way to minimize the miseries due to the disability, the root cause of which has not been identified yet, Hanief added.
-Some of the girls, who have learned the sign language, expressed their desire to start sewing centers. ‘They want sewing machines and a residential school. They have pinned our hopes on the Army as it is the only one looking after us for the last 10 years. My three daughters Asran Bano (8), Reshma (12) and Asha Bano (23) are born with the disability and the Army has recently provided them with hearing aids, Hussan Bibi, a local woman, said.
-She further said that her daughters are showing a keen interest in stitching and she is hopeful that the Army will help them achieve their dream by providing sewing machines and setting up a tailoring centre!
-In January, the Army gave hearing aids, costing Rs 17,000 each, to 10 children in the first phase, besides starting tutorials to teach them sign language.
-‘I’m sure that there would be more to come as a start has been made and when a good start has been initiated, the end result has to be superlative.’ That is what we have been seeing and writing about!
Rural life is heaven for the urban-people, but when it comes to going to this heaven, they prefer to stay in hell! It’s an old story and the same is happening as the run for more and more money is feverish but for the people of Dadahki love their hilltop village is the most preferred place because they have their band of brothers right at their backs just for them! A great example of people and the Indian Army relationship in Doda!
