Silent Suffering: Protracted Conflict and Structural Marginalization of the Health of Women and Children in the Kashmir Valley

Owais Ismaeil , Mudasir Qadir

Kashmir Valley Conflict, Mental Health Impact, Civilian Suffering, Healthcare Infrastructure Evaluation.

The article focuses on the consequences of the long-term political conflict on the health and welfare of women and children in the Kashmir Valley. Lasting instability and militarization experienced over the last three decades have changed the normalcy in the region with long-term physical, psychological and socio-economic effects on civilians. These have been felt especially by women and children who are at the cross-points of gender, age, and structural marginality. The paper is based on qualitative and analytical research, which pulls together primary sources, such as government materials, health reports, interviews, and institutional documents, and secondary scholarship of sociology, public health, and studies of conflict. The discussion shows that years of violence, insecurity, and loss has led to large percentage of mental health distress in women and children such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress as well as the growing rate of chronic physical diseases. The structural constraints which have made these health outcomes worse are poor healthcare infrastructures, poor access to mental health services, poverty, gender norms and poor access to medical facilities especially in rural settings. Although the right to health is being formally acknowledged by state-initiated welfare programs and legal frameworks, the programs and legal frameworks still lack effectiveness because they have continuous instability, poor implementation, and institutional constraints. The paper contends that the current healthcare interventions are not adequate to mitigate the health outcomes of conflict that are gendered and intergenerational. It demands a rights-based and communal methodology of service delivery in medical care with specific focus on readily available mental health medical and all-inclusive policy interventions. This study will help to expand the general content on health, gender, and conflict in protracted crisis contexts by focusing on women and children experiences

Volume 14 Issue 1, January-2026

Pages : e357-e366