"Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress"—the theme of International Women’s Day 2025—calls for the unequivocal dismantling of systemic inequities. These inequities imperil women's safety, autonomy, and dignity.
Yet, in Jammu and Kashmir, this vision remains a distant ideal. Sex trafficking and gender-based violence continue unabated under the shadow of conflict and militarisation. The abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019 ushered in an era of intensified surveillance and state impunity.
Women have been subjected to abduction, coercion, and trafficking. These are not incidental consequences of conflict. They are calibrated mechanisms of subjugation and demographic engineering.
When state hegemony is absolute and legal recourse remains illusory, the trafficking of women ceases to be an anomaly. Instead, it becomes a deliberate instrument of control. The erosion of institutional accountability has fostered an environment where gendered violence is weaponised.
Women are reduced to mere pawns in a broader geopolitical calculus. Investing in women necessitates safeguarding their fundamental rights. Their bodies must not become battlegrounds for political dominion. Justice is not a privilege—it is a precondition for genuine progress.
Where are missing Kashmiri women?
The figures provided by India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) are eye-opening. Between 2019 and 2020, as many as 8,617 women and 1,148 girls disappeared from Jammu and Kashmir. This period saw an unprecedented siege, a total communication blackout, and a surge in troop deployment.
With external access blocked, media censored, and civilians confined to their homes, the scale of these disappearances raises urgent questions. How did thousands of women vanish under such an extensive security apparatus?
Who had the means to orchestrate mass abductions in a region under total surveillance? The answer is evident: state complicity—either through direct involvement, facilitation of trafficking networks, or the exploitation of victims for intelligence, espionage, and sex trafficking.
This pattern is not new. The enforced disappearances of Kashmiri men by Indian forces have been widely documented. The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has recorded over 8,000 cases of Kashmiri men vanishing in state custody.
Most never returned. The forced disappearances of women and girls in the post-370 era signify an escalation, shifting the state’s strategy from targeting men to weaponising gender-based violence.
Women in conflict zones are frequently subjected to trafficking, sexual slavery, and forced recruitment as informants. With Kashmir under complete military control, such crimes have been conducted in secrecy, shielded by state-imposed silence.
Serious issue of Trafficking
The nexus between the state and sex trafficking in Jammu & Kashmir is not new. The 2006 Jammu and Kashmir sex scandal exposed the involvement of high-ranking officials in trafficking Kashmiri women.
Two video CDs surfaced, revealing minors being sexually exploited. These children were coerced into prostitution and supplied to senior police officers, bureaucrats, and politicians.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police identified 56 suspects, yet most evaded prosecution. Victims, some as young as 15, were blackmailed and forced into prostitution for as little as Rs 250 to Rs 500. This case exposed a system of institutionalised exploitation, revealing how trafficking networks operate under state protection. The past failure to take legal action has led to ongoing injustice and allowed perpetrators to act with impunity.
The post-370 siege provided the perfect conditions for a militarised trafficking industry. The lockdown saw occupation forces seal off the region, impose indefinite curfews, and block all communication channels. International observers, human rights organisations, and journalists were denied entry.
The Indian state had unchecked power over Kashmir, controlling every aspect of civilian life. The question remains unanswered: if the Indian state is not responsible, why has there been no investigation? Why has the government remained silent despite official data confirming thousands of missing women? The refusal to act suggests a deliberate cover-up.
International law is clear. The UN Palermo Protocol (2000), Article 3, criminalises human trafficking and mandates states to prevent and prosecute such crimes. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), Article 6, obliges governments to take all necessary measures to suppress trafficking.
Targeting Kashmiri women
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), Article 7(1)(c) and (g), classifies enforced disappearances, trafficking, and sexual slavery as crimes against humanity. India’s refusal to investigate these disappearances constitutes a direct breach of its legal obligations.
The implications extend beyond physical violence. The abduction of Kashmiri women represents a deliberate campaign of psychological and demographic warfare. Women are central to family structures, cultural preservation, and social resistance—they are foundational pillars of families and communities.
The Indian state targets them to weaken Kashmiri society and stifle resistance. The figures documented by the NCRB serve as incontrovertible evidence of a humanitarian catastrophe, one that extends beyond mere militarisation to a calculated campaign of demographic and psychological warfare. The absence of independent investigations and the government's silence strengthen its involvement in the issue.
As long as the whereabouts of all missing women remain unknown, the Indian state is liable for enforced disappearances, human trafficking, and serious international law violations. The international community cannot afford to ignore these atrocities.
The absence of justice for the victims of 2006 emboldened perpetrators. The ongoing disappearances of Kashmiri women after August 5, 2019, must not meet the same fate.
(The author is head of the research and human rights department of the Islamabad-based think tank, Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR). She can be contacted at: mehr_dua@yahoo.com)
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