News Kashmir Magazine

Medical University in Kashmir is the need of hour 

Maleeha Khurshid 
The pandemic of Coronavirus has in all terms ravaged entire humanity with millions dying and crores being infected by this deadly virus .Health Sector has undoubtedly assumed the number one priority in these circumstances for entire world .Medical University that could organise all our health care professionals and institutions is the need of hour for Kashmir .We need to remember that the Medical University or Medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians and surgeons. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MBChB, MBBCh, BMBS), Master of Medicine (MM, MMed), Doctor of Medicine (M.D), or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O). Many medical universities offer additional degrees, such as a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), master’s degree (M.Sc,) or other post-secondary education.
Medical universities  can also carry out medical research and operate teaching hospitals. Around the world, criteria, structure, teaching methodology, and nature of medical programs offered at medical universities vary considerably.Different organisations who espouse better  health care for Kashmir  have started to raise their voices for establishing a fully operational medical University in Kashmir .Expert voices urge that now is a time that medical university to be  set-up to bring all medical colleges, para-medical and nursing colleges and other related institutions under one umbrella.  
The other side of the spectrum shows that  medical university has been a long-pending demand of the medical faculty in Kashmir and in its absence, the medical students and professionals had to “undergo hardships.”
Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) also recently  sought setting up of a medical university in Kashmir.
“The medical university would strengthen and expand the health sector and transform the health care scenario in the region,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement here at Srinagar.
With expanding medical, nursing and other allied health sciences, medical university is the need of the hour,” he said adding the DAK President said medical varsity would integrate the health care system and provide effective and efficient patient care.
One hopes Medical University in Kashmir would be a reality soon.
The writer can be reached at shahmaliha7@gmail.com

HAS EDUCATION LOST ITS RELEVANCE? 
Syed Mustafa Ahmad
It is a universal fact that the main aim of education is enlightenment. Enlightenment means the clouds of ignorance must go away. Ignorance in the sense of superstitions, gender bias, immorality, communalism, unfair means, etc. If these things still persist in the presence of education, then there is something terribly wrong with the education system. It is not the malaise of some days, but the handiwork of many factors that have been constantly going for many years. The criteria to know about the compatibility of education in the society is to see etiquettes or manners. In another sense, if there are mannered people, then this society is learned, if not then we can easily say that this society has to overhaul their every domain of life in order to grow.      When this is the case, how can a society afford to ignore education? In Kashmir, the relevance of education had been lost long ago. Corruption, proxy candidates, question paper leakages, faulty recruitment, etc., have made our educational system a commodity to be bargained. After getting into the educational sector through illegal ways, how these people can do anything for society. When their motives are to earn back the money, which they have spent in getting jobs, we cannot expect from them to do anything positive. This situation has many causes. Let us try to know some of them.     The first is materialism. When the main motive of life is to earn money, education itself follows the path of money. Every moral or immoral class runs around money and nothing else. In this way, education loses its main value and the society doesn’t produce enlightenment personalities that are assets for a nation.       The second is faulty syllabi. With changing times, everything must undergo a reasonable change. However, in case of education, the change is quite slow. In the 21st Century, when AI and Machine Learning are occupying our minds, we cannot go on admonishing machines nor we can go on following them blindly. A man is planning to colonize the Mars, the Venus, etc., in order to live a happy life, but in some parts of the world, students are taught to learn about the things that have no relevance in the present. In this way, students get fed up and they think that it is futile to learn and consume our marvellous brains in such things that are of no use, but money and fake fame.         The third is religion. Religiosity in the garb of religions, has made lives hellish. Religions are for the sake of comfort, but due to orthodoxy and superstitions, they have hijacked the whole society. Students are taught that science is atheism. It makes a person atheist. It is better to prepare ourselves for the Hereafter. In this situation, students fall prey to them. They abhor scientific things like medicine, smartphones, electricity, televisions, etc. And the result is that science and technology and other disciplines, that have come to our rescue, become the soft targets.        The fourth and last is our attitude. We never ponder over things and become fascinated by some charming words or slogans. If we had pondered over everything, we would not have reached the present situation. We work in haste and regret at the end of the day.        So, the need of the hour is to make education relevant. Without education, it is quite unthinkable to grow and develop. We have live examples of America, USA, Britain, Singapore, etc., that are doing quite well in this regard. They have made it possible not to let education become the soft target of any kind of disturbance. They have set a goal before them and are living for that goal. Their mornings and evenings revolve around that goal. Last but not the least, they are corruption free. They don’t allow corruption to seep into their countries and decompose the tall pillars of society. They are strongly opposite to it. So, it is an opportunity for us to show our mettle in the competitive world.

                   NEW NORMAL SHOULD BE A BETTER ONE.
Dr Suhaib Ashraf Bhat
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million. Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable because the majority lack social protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive assets. The pandemic has been affecting the entire food system and has laid bare its fragility. Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have been preventing farmers from accessing markets, including for buying inputs and selling their produce, and agricultural workers from harvesting crops, thus disrupting domestic and international food supply chains and reducing access to healthy, safe and diverse diets. The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed millions of livelihoods at risk. As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and die, the food security and nutrition of millions of women and men are under threat, with those in low-income countries, particularly the most marginalized populations, which include small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, being hardest hit.Millions of agricultural workers – waged and self-employed – while feeding the world, regularly face high levels of working poverty, malnutrition and poor health, and suffer from a lack of safety and labour protection as well as other types of abuse. With low and irregular incomes and a lack of social support, many of them are spurred to continue working, often in unsafe conditions, thus exposing themselves and their families to additional risks. Further, when experiencing income losses, they may resort to negative coping strategies, such as distress sale of assets, predatory loans or child labour. Migrant agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable, because they face risks in their transport, working and living conditions and struggle to access support measures put in place by governments. Guaranteeing the safety and health of all agri-food workers – from primary producers to those involved in food processing, transport and retail, including street food vendors – as well as better incomes and protection, will be critical to saving lives and protecting public health, people’s livelihoods and food security.
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order often initiated by the debtor.Bankrupt is not the only legal status that an insolvent person may have, and the term bankruptcy is therefore not a synonym for insolvency. Many governments have called on youth to embrace the effort to protect themselves and the overall population. Youth are also in a position to help those who are most vulnerable, and to aid in increasing public health social awareness campaigns among their communities. Thus, youth are critical to limiting the virus’s spread and its impact on public health, society, and the economy at large.In terms of employment, youth are disproportionately unemployed, and those who are employed often work in the informal economy or gig economy, on precarious contracts or in the service sectors of the economy, that are likely to be severely affected by COVID-19.More than one billion youth are now no longer physically in school after the closure of schools and universities across many jurisdictions. The disruption in education and learning could have medium and long-term consequences on the quality of education, though the efforts made by teachers, school administrations, local and national governments to cope with the unprecedented circumstances to the best of their ability should be recognized.Many vulnerable youth such as migrants or homeless youth are in precarious situations. They are the ones who can easily be overlooked if governments do not pay specific attention, as they tend to be already in a situation without even their minimum requirements being met on health, education, employment and well-being.If you’re considering bankruptcy, here is how the process works:
If your debts have become unmanageable or you’re facing foreclosure on your home, you might be thinking about declaring bankruptcy. While bankruptcy may be the only way out for some people, it also has serious consequences that are worth considering before you make any decisions. For example, bankruptcy will remain on your credit report for either seven or 10 years, depending on the type of bankruptcy that can make it difficult to obtain a credit card, car loan, or mortgage in the future. It could also mean higher insurance rates and even affect your ability to get a job or rent an apartment.Bankruptcy can do severe damage to your credit score and should be considered as a last resort.As an alternative, you may be able to negotiate with your creditors and work out a payment plan or other satisfactory arrangement.If you decide to file for bankruptcy, you have two basic options: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will sell off many of your assets to pay your creditors. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you keep the assets but must repay your debts over a specified period.
Bankruptcy is generally considered a last resort for people who are deep in debt and see no way to pay their bills. Before filing for bankruptcy, there are alternatives that are worth exploring. They are less costly than bankruptcy and likely to do less damage to your credit record. For example, find out if your creditors are willing to negotiate. Rather than wait for a bankruptcy settlement—and risk getting nothing at all—some creditors will agree to accept reduced payments over a longer period of time. In the case of a home mortgage, call your loan servicers to see what options may be available to you. Some lenders offer forbearance (postponing payments for a period of time), repayment plans (such as smaller payments stretched over a longer period), or loan modification programs (which might, for example, lower your interest rate for the remainder of the loan).

In the COVID-19 crisis food security, public health, and employment and labour issues, in particular workers’ health and safety, converge. Adhering to workplace safety and health practices and ensuring access to decent work and the protection of labour rights in all industries will be crucial in addressing the human dimension of the crisis. Immediate and purposeful action to save lives and livelihoods should include extending social protection towards universal health coverage and income support for those most affected. These include workers in the informal economy and in poorly protected and low-paid jobs, including youth, older workers, and migrants. Particular attention must be paid to the situation of women, who are over-represented in low-paid jobs and care roles. Different forms of support are key, including cash transfers, child allowances and healthy school meals, shelter and food relief initiatives, support for employment retention and recovery, and financial relief for businesses, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. In designing and implementing such measures it is essential that governments work closely with employers and workers.Countries dealing with existing humanitarian crises or emergencies are particularly exposed to the effects of COVID-19. Responding swiftly to the pandemic, while ensuring that humanitarian and recovery assistance reaches those most in need, is critical.Now is the time for global solidarity and support, especially with the most vulnerable in our societies, particularly in the emerging and developing world. Only together can we overcome the intertwined health and social and economic impacts of the pandemic and prevent its escalation into a protracted humanitarian and food security catastrophe, with the potential loss of already achieved development gains.We must recognize this opportunity to build back better, as noted in the policy brief issued by the United Nations Secretary-General. We are committed to pooling our expertise and experience to support countries in their crisis response measures and efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to develop long-term sustainable strategies to address the challenges facing the health and agri-food sectors. Priority should be given to addressing underlying food security and malnutrition challenges, tackling rural poverty, in particular through more and better jobs in the rural economy, extending social protection to all, facilitating safe migration pathways and promoting the formalization of the informal economy.
We must rethink and tackle this situation with ambition and urgency. Only then can we protect the health, livelihoods, food security and nutrition of all people, and ensure that our ‘new normal’ is a better one.

suhaibbhatt85@gmail.com

            The best of marriage is that which is made easiest.

Dr Suhaib Ashraf Bhat
Love is a decision to be committed to another person. It is far more than a fleeting emotion as portrayed on television, the big screen, and romance novels. Feelings come and go, but a true decision to be committed lasts forever—and that is what defines healthy marriages.Marriage is a decision to be committed through the ups and the downs, the good and the bad. When things are going well, commitment is easy. But true love is displayed by remaining committed even through the trials of life. Honesty and trust become the foundation for everything in a successful marriage. But unlike most of the other essentials on this list, trust takes time. You can become selfless, committed, or patient in a moment, but trust always takes time. Trust is only built after weeks, months, and years of being  who you say you are and doing what you say you’ll do. It takes time, so start now—and if you need to rebuild trust in your relationship, you’ll need to work even harder. Although it will never show up on any survey, more marriages are broken up by selfishness than any other reason. Surveys blame it on finances, lack of commitment, infidelity, or incompatibility, but the root cause for most of these reasons is selfishness. A selfish person is committed only to himself or herself, shows little patience, and never learns how to be a successful spouse. Give your hopes, dreams, and life to your partner. And begin to live life together.We all have weaknesses and relationships always reveal these faults quicker than anything else on earth. An essential building block of a healthy marriage is the ability to admit that you are not perfect, that you will make mistakes, and that you will need forgiveness. Holding an attitude of superiority over your partner will bring about resentment and will prevent your relationship from moving forward.
The general principle according to which a man should conduct his spending is the same general principle according to which he should conduct his life, which is the middle way and moderation. Allah swt, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “And those, who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly, but hold a medium (way) between those (extremes)” [al-Furqaan 25:67]. The middle way and moderation cannot be identified by specific amounts or specific limits, that if a person oversteps that mark he can be described as being extravagant and if he falls short of it then he is being a miser or niggardly; rather that varies according to the individual’s situation, whether he is rich or poor, whether it is a case of ordinary expenses or an emergency. It also varies from one place to another, one time to another, and so on. The ruling on whether something is extravagance or not takes into account all of these things. Allah swt, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “Let the rich man spend according to his means, and the man whose resources are restricted, let him spend according to what Allah swt has given him. Allah swt puts no burden on any person beyond what He has given him” [al-Talaaq 65:7].Secondly:One of the things that people have gone too far in, until they reached the level of extravagance and excess, is the matter of exaggerating concerning the mahar, and being extravagant in clothing, wedding feasts, and so on. The knowledgeable and wise people have started to complain about this because of the many evil consequences to which it leads, such as many women remaining unmarried, because many men cannot afford the expenses of getting married, which leads to many kinds of evil consequences. Scholars, Philosophers and Writers are urging people not to be extravagant in wedding parties and other expenses that have to do with weddings in general. All of them suggest that this is one of the factors that make the issue of marriage complicated for those who want to get married, to such an extent that the numbers of young women who remain unmarried have increased. The most blessed marriage is that which is affordable; the less the expenses are, the greater the blessings. Going to extremes in dowries and competing in offering lavish wedding feasts leads to overstepping the mark, and because there are so many celebrations that are done before and after the wedding, and because of what accompanies that of haraam things that lead to immorality, such as singing and mixing between men and women on some occasions, and men serving women in hotels if the party is held in a hotel, which is regarded as one of the greatest of evils, and because going that path of extravagance means that many people are unable to afford the expenses of marriage and indeed this indecent extravagance may lead to many young people, both boys and girls, going astray.There should be a ban on extravagance and overstepping the mark with regard to wedding feasts. People should be warned against that through the officials who record marriages and through the media. People should be encouraged to lower the dowry and extravagance in such matters should be discouraged from the minbars of the mosque, in learning circles and through the media. Wedding parties are among the things in which it is prescribed to express happiness and joy and to instil that in the family and the wife, but that does not mean that one should fall into extravagance or spend unnecessarily. The argument that it is only once in a lifetime cannot be an excuse to spend too much. Being extravagant only once is not allowed and is haraam, just as being extravagant more than once is repeatedly falling into something that is not allowed and is haraam. The evil consequences of exaggerating concerning dowries are well known. How many free, chaste women have been prevented from marrying by their guardians, who have wronged them and left them without husbands and children. How many women has that led to respond to the calls of their own desire and the Shaytaan, so they have committed evil actions and brought shame upon themselves and their families and clans, because they have committed sins that anger the Most Merciful?  How many young men have been unable to meet these demands for which no authority was sent down by Allah swt, so the devils and evil companions took control of them, until they led them astray and caused them to lose out, so they lost their families and lost their way, and they became lost to their ummah and homeland, and they lost out in this world and in the Hereafter.Extravagance is not allowed and is blameworthy in all matters, whether it has to do with marriage or otherwise. What is prescribed in Islam is that the individual should not make things difficult for himself and should not burden himself with more than he can bear. Rather he should spend according to his means and what he is able to afford, whilst avoiding extravagance and going to extremes in spending. But this does not mean that spending on wedding parties and marriage should be like spending on ordinary days, for example. Of course this is not appropriate; rather it is prescribed to spend more generously than usual at this time. For that reason it is Sunnah for a man to offer a feast at his wedding and to invite people to it. This is an expense that is greater than usual, but what matters, as we have said, is to avoid extravagance and wasteful spending in all of that. Each individual should pay attention to his own situation and what he can afford.
suhaibbhatt85@gmail.com

ROTE LEARNING: A CURSE 

By: Syed Mustafa Ahmad and Syed Mehroosh 

The writers are siblings from Hajibagh, HMT, Zainakote
It is a universal fact that the ultimate aim of education is personality development. Education is both a way  and an end in itself that provides opportunities to a student  to become a realized personality. To become a realized personality, both memorization and observations are necessary. The former opens up the closed sections of the brain, while as the latter is all about exposing an individual to the realities of life. But the irony is; when the memorization is solely taken for education. Cramming notes and facts are never an education in itself. It, in the long run, manipulates the very aim of education for nothing.        This malaise is not a product of some years. Since 1835 Act, we have been caught in the rat race of memorization. Thomas Macaulay was aware that if the ancient period of India was glorious, their modern was not. For this purpose, he introduced the system of learning where clerks and subordinates are manufactured. This system is all about mugging up of both facts and falsehoods. If this is the case, there must be reasons for this. In the coming lines, let us know some of the causes for this curse.        The first is outdated syllabi. For decades, thinkers and common people have been stressing upon this fact we must have the child-centered curriculum rather than exam dominated  curriculum or in other words, happy curriculum. Moreover, they disagree with the people, who believe in strict discipline. They believe that it hampers the progress of child’s brain. But their suggestions have been falling on deaf ears and the result is that for the sake of so-called learning, students memorize things without understanding it. Furthermore, notes are prepared by someone. In this way, it goes from bad to worse.       The second is laziness. Students have been made lazy enough to go for readymade things. They are not ready to observe, experiment and criticize anything. Instead, they want something that is acceptable and very short in nature. Their brains are filled with the suggestions that rote learning is better learning because it fetches marks. On the other hand, critical thinking may lead in trouble. In this way, they waste a lot of their time in other pursuits rather than investing their time in doing something on their own level.        The third is competition. In the present world, to remain in the competition means that one has to pass and qualify legally or illegally. Critical thinking and experimental things may shut out a student from the competition. The only way to get through is to memorize the derivations of both Physics and Maths and become a physicist as well as Mathematician. Who, at the end of the day, is going to ask them about what they have done? Outward display of learning is more charming than an ocean of knowledge and experience inside a child.         The fourth and last is ignorant society. Our society is illiterate as well as uneducated. For it, reading and writing is education. This is the narrowest kind of education. Education is something lifelong process. In the unequal society, to find equality is education. Finding beauty in ugliness is education. But this type of mindset is unknown to people. Our society judges on the basis of jobs, fluency, memory, etc. However, there is nothing about facing the real challenges of life. Society needs problem solvers; not problem creators.       So, the need of the hour is to do away with the rote learning and come up with something beneficial for the students as well as society. We cannot go on losing our precious brains in the name of education. It is best that we get awakened now.