| News Details |
| PDP MLA Waheed Parra Moves Reconciliation,Trauma Healing and Dignity Bill in J&K Assembly | |
Srinagar, January 30 (Scoop News)- Jammu, PDP MLA Waheed Ur Rehman Parra has moved a notice in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to introduce a private member’s bill seeking dignity, reconciliation and trauma healing for people affected by decades of violence and instability in the Union Territory. The bill, titled the “Jammu and Kashmir Reconciliation, Trauma Healing and Dignity Bill, 2026,” is proposed to be taken up during the Budget Session of the J&K Assembly beginning on February 2.
According to the notice submitted to the Assembly Secretariat, the proposed legislation aims to establish a statutory framework for trauma healing, psychosocial rehabilitation, dignity restoration and restorative dialogue through existing public health institutions, in harmony with the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.
The Bill notes that Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed prolonged violence, armed conflict, terrorism and political instability, resulting in widespread psychological trauma, displacement, grief, loss of dignity and erosion of social trust. While incidents of violence have declined since 2019, it stresses the need for humane and forward-looking measures to consolidate peace and restore human dignity.
It emphasises that peace is not merely the absence of violence but the ability of individuals, communities and institutions to live with dignity and address grievances through peaceful and restorative means. The proposed legislation highlights that prolonged exposure to violence has imposed differentiated human costs on various sections of society, including Kashmiri Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits and members of the security forces, and that unaddressed psychological trauma undermines dignity and perpetuates cycles of fear, mistrust and inter-generational harm.
The Bill underlines that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to live with dignity, mental well-being and psychological integrity, and calls for a complementary statutory framework to address conflict-induced psychosocial trauma in Jammu and Kashmir. “It is expedient to enact a humane, rights-based, evidence-driven, non-partisan and non-coercive legal framework for trauma healing, reconciliation, dignity and psychosocial well-being, and the consolidation of stability and sustainable peace in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Bill states.
Under the proposed law, the J&K Department of Health will be the nodal authority for implementation. Services will be voluntary, confidential and based on informed consent, and delivered by qualified mental health professionals and trained personnel. The Bill provides for counselling, grief and trauma recovery programmes, family- and community-based interventions, and professionally facilitated restorative dialogue to promote healing, dignity and social cohesion. It states that all measures will be humanitarian, non-political and non-punitive, with safeguards to protect beneficiaries from stigma, discrimination or adverse consequences for seeking support.
A financial memorandum attached to the Bill estimates an initial expenditure of ₹50 crore for strengthening mental health services, training professionals, community-based programmes and monitoring, to be met through budgetary allocations of the Union Territory government.
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