By Sameer Ahmad
Anantnag: A remote village in District Anantnag, Vail Nagbal, has lost at least twenty residents to cancer. The highest qualification for boys remains 12th standard while for girls it’s 10th standard.
The village is about 25 km’s from main town Anantnag and is aloof from basic facilities like roads, portable water and even electricity supply to the village has not been provided.
Mashaals is what lights the vail village.
According to health department officials they have not conducted any study on the residents as to why such a staggering number of patients with cancer have risen from there.
“ Throat and stomach are the two types of cancer which we have seen from the village but why in a single village, we don’t know,” an official at the department of health services told INS.
Not only has the village, ‘forgotten of its existence’ as villagers say in health sector but education too has been ruined by official apathy, it has two schools one primary and one middle school with total number of 255 students, 10 teachers. Four in Primary and six in middle school. “We cannot afford higher studies for our children, we are poor, so they have to support family. Making two ends meet is difficult for us,” a villager said.
“Almost 70 students left studies in 8th class and there is no student who had Graduation from Vail till this date,” villagers claimed.
An employee (name with held) of an NGO who had helped the villager to meet financial constraints for cancer patients told INS said that few years back they had raised red flag on the rising cancer patients.
“Some articles were published in newspapers and we thought government will intervene to check the matter but nothing happened,” he said.
Abdul Rashid Khan a local resident while talking to the INS said that we face shortage of basic amenities like water, electricity and other things. “Once Ex chief Minister of PDP Mehbooba Mufti came in our village and assured us that soon we will have ‘walnut and toffees’ but we are non existent people, living in rural area, who cares we live or die,” Khan complained.
Another resident Abdul Qayoom Khan that they had many a times approached district authorities to provide them electricity and water ‘none listened’.
When this reporter went to the village, announcements were made on masjid public address system to assemble near masjid.
“At least two thousand people are living here and majority of them are from Gujjar Community,” Khan said.
Abdul Rashid, Zonal Education Officer Mattan confirmed that the village is educationally backward and not a single student has passed standard 12 exams from the village.
“Not a single woman teacher has been posted there and we have initiated a process to transfer one at least. So she can create awareness among girls to study further. Poverty seems to be main reason that they don’t continue their studies,” ZEO said.
