Nighat Shafi Pandit, chairperson of HELP, has doggedly worked in the state for years, providing help to women who have suffered in the conflict.
The decades of unrest in Kashmir have been particularly harsh on women, even though things are looking up now. They have had to live through years of trauma due to the violence, terrorism, and operations by security forces. Many of them speak of living in fear each time their husbands or sons went out of their homes, not knowing if they would return. They were, and in many areas still are, unable to access mental health services, reproductive health services and livelihood avenues. Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have left, unable to function in the prevailing restrictive and often dangerous conditions.