PDP MLA submits Kashmiri Pandit re-integration bill, says exodus led to intergenerational trauma

SRINAGAR: A PDP legislator, Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, has submitted to the J&K Assembly secretariat a private member’s bill that seeks a legal framework for reintegration of Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants, stating that their exodus from the Kashmir eroded trust between communities and inflicted an intergenerational trauma that was yet to heal.

The Kashmiri Pandit and Migrant Re-integration Bill-2026, in its statement of objects and reasons, invokes ‘Kashmiriyat’, the region’s syncretic cultural ethos, stating that Jammu and Kashmir has historically represented a composite civilisation shaped by pluralism, cultural interdependence and mutual coexistence.

The proposed bill talks about the late 1980s, culminating in the 1989-1990 period when “largescale militancy, violence and intimidation resulted in the mass displacement of Kashmiri Pandits and other minority communities from the Kashmir Valley”. “This displacement was not only territorial but civilisational, rupturing social bonds, eroding trust between communities, and inflicting deep psychological, cultural and intergenerational trauma,” it states.

While successive govts have undertaken relief and rehabilitation measures, including financial assistance, ration support, employment packages, transit accommodation and educational benefits, these initiatives have largely remained relief-centric, fragmented and survival-oriented. “They have not sufficiently addressed the structural, psychological, cultural and reconciliatory dimensions of displacement, nor have they facilitated meaningful reintegration into the social life of the Valley,” the bill says.

The draft legislation proposed by Mehdi seeks to establish a statutory body, Jammu and Kashmir Re-integration Commission, which will formulate and oversee a comprehensive and rights-based reintegration policy for Kashmiri migrants; facilitate the transition from relief-centric assistance to long-term reintegration and reconciliation; and ensure that their return, where undertaken, is voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable.

The bill says the commission would promote coexistence, trust-building and inter-community harmony, and advise the govt on institutional safeguards necessary to guarantee safety, dignity and non-discrimination.

It further proposes that the commission would facilitate structured inter-community and intra-community dialogue between Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims; will design and implement trauma-healing, psychosocial and mental health support programmes in coordination with professional institutions; and promote narratives of pluralism, shared history and cultural coexistence through education, media and public discourse and support initiatives such as community museums, documentation of lived experiences, truth-telling forums and memory projects.

Mehdi expects the bill to be tabled when the budget session of assembly reconvenes on March 27 after a break of more than a month.