The Impact of Border Conflict on Children’s Education and Development in the Rajouri district of Jammu & Kashmir

Abstract

This paper investigates complex role of cross-border shelling on both the education and psychosocial wellbeing of school going children within the high conflict border of Jammu and Kashmir in India. The study employed a concurrent mixed-method design that recruited quantitative surveys of 420 (aged 10-16) students in high-exposure districts and compared them with a control group (n=150) in low-exposure districts to designate that study, the qualitative in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with children, their parents and teachers. Quantitative data indicated that exposure to shelling significantly negatively correlated with school attendance (r = -0.72, p<.001) with high-exposure schools missing 40 percent (72 days) of an academic year on average. These students had also a significantly worse academic performance (M=49.8 vs. M=68.5, p<.001) and had more prevalence of clinical PTSD (38 vs. 8), anxiety symptoms (45 vs. 12) and depression symptoms (32 vs. 9) than their counterparts in the control group (all p<.001). The strongest predictor of PTSD symptoms was direct shelling exposure ( 0.41, p= 0.001). The qualitative analysis revealed four major themes. The researchers conclude that the effects of cross-border shelling are chronic and toxic stressors that form a syndemic, with educational disruption and psychological trauma being inevitably connected and mutually reinforcing. The landmark conclusions support the shift in paradigm where the ad-hoc management of crisis is replaced by the systematic application of trauma-informed educational ecosystems, school-based mental health services and resilient learning systems designed to accommodate conflict-affected borderlands.