The heavy military presence and frequent communication blackouts in Jammu and Kashmir are taking a disproportionate toll on female education, reversing years of progress and driving up school dropout rates for girls, according to a recent analysis published in The Conversation.
Writing for the publication, Shambhavi Siddhi, a PhD candidate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western University, highlights that while the Indian government cited "women's empowerment" and the eradication of gender discrimination as key motivations for revoking Jammu and Kashmir's semi-autonomous status in August 2019, the reality on the ground has told a vastly different story for young women seeking an education.
Rising Dropout Rates and Low Literacy
According to data presented before the Indian parliament in March 2026, the secondary-level dropout rate for girls in the region peaked at 12.6% during the 2023–24 academic year—surpassing India’s national average of 9.6%. Alarmingly, the region's overall secondary school dropout rate more than doubled in just two years, surging from 5.96% in 2021–22 to 13.4% in 2023–24.
"These figures aren't just abstract data — they reflect the limited opportunities girls are facing in their educational journeys," Siddhi writes.
Further compounding the issue, data from the Status of Education Report 2023 by the Pratham Education Foundation revealed that 5.5% of girls in Jammu and Kashmir aged 14 to 16 were completely out of school. This non-enrollment rate is more than three times higher than that of boys in the same age bracket, which stood at just 1.7%.
A ‘Lockdown Within a Lockdown’
The decline in female literacy and school attendance is deeply intertwined with the security measures implemented since 2019, including severe restrictions on digital access. Following the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, the region endured a seven-month internet blackout—the longest ever recorded in a democracy.
Research cited in The Peace Review points out that this communication freeze overlapped heavily with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating what researchers described as a "lockdown within a lockdown." Because students had absolutely no access to online learning tools, many were unable to register for examinations, resulting in entirely lost academic years.
Beyond digital blockades, the physical realities of living in one of the world's most heavily militarized zones have severely constrained women’s day-to-day mobility.
The pervasive presence of checkpoints, continuous patrolling, increased surveillance, and sudden search-and-cordon operations have fundamentally disrupted civic life. The 2023 Status of Education Report underscores that restrictions on movement impact women far more severely than men. Curfews, a heavily armed military presence, and persistent fears of sexual violence have left many families hesitant to send their daughters to school.
Siddhi notes a study published by the Canadian Journal where female PhD scholars across five Kashmiri institutions documented how militarization, abrupt curfews, and network outages directly compromised their higher education. For many women, these structural disruptions led to academic deferrals, the total abandonment of degrees, or forced changes in their career paths.
Call for International Scrutiny
The analysis concludes that Jammu and Kashmir's current governance system—defined by military control, legal immunity, and communications blackouts—is fundamentally shrinking the futures available to Kashmiri women.
"The stark gendered difference in women's education statistics, as well as their lived experiences, shows how Kashmiri girls and women are bearing a disproportionate brunt of militarized governance," Siddhi states.
Despite the severity of the crisis, the situation has historically received limited sustained attention in global human rights forums. Siddhi argues that increased international scrutiny is urgently required to fully understand and address the specific mechanisms trapping women and marginalized genders in this protracted conflict setting.
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