Jammu, March 9 (Scoop News) - A report released by Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, a leading South Asian think-tank on security related issues, here today has recommended setting up of Commissions and studies undertaken to enquire into the problems of refugees, migrants and the internally displaced people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“This is important given the significant mistrust regarding what has happened in the last two decades vis-à-vis the movement of populations,” the report said emphasizing that it was essential to have independent studies on these issues, with a view to publish white papers on what has actually happened. These commissions/studies should be impartial, comprising people from all regions and submit a white paper on the issues. Besides, independent research organizations could commission such studies with inputs from all three regions of J&K, recommended the report which was prepared by the IPCS, based on the deliberations of the workshop on the escalation of religious and ethnic radicalization in the regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The workshop took place in December 2009 in Jammu with the joint collaboration of the IPCS and the University of Jammu. The report would subsequently be submitted to the central and state governments as recommendations and circulated widely in the media in J&K.

An important achievement of the workshop was organizing the young participants from different regions and sub-regions of J&K into two Working Groups to discuss these vital issues and make recommendations on regional and religious issues. The two working groups made these recommendations, which were discussed at length during the workshop entitled “Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh: Building Peace & Countering Radicalization”.

The report recommended addressing serious regional and religious issues between the three regions in a constructive way as ‘there is a need to understand each other’s perspectives and address both, real and perceived grievances.’ Besides, it also suggesting that ggovernance must be taken down to the grassroots level and political decentralization should take place through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).

“One of the major challenges to effective governance in J&K is the question of decentralization. Projects implemented by the State and Union governments are caught up in State capitals-Jammu and Srinagar. They seldom reach the district headquarters in all the three regions. Even if they do, they never move beyond the district headquarters. Effective implementation of PRIs is the only way to ensure that the decentralization process reaches the grassroots level in the far-flung areas of J&K”, the report read.

The effective implementation of PRIs, studying closely the working of the Hill Councils in Leh and Kargil to find out whether these models could address the growing alienation between regions, empowering people at the grassroots level, creating an awareness and an understanding of each other’s sentiments as a means to promote peace and tolerance within the state, need to initiate a debate at two levels - between and within the communities, and a need for communities to strive to arrive at a consensus within themselves as also to be cognizant of the sensitivities and grievances of others, formed part of other recommendations.

Saying that the revival of Sufism should encouraged to dilute radical elements, the report read that recent years have witnessed an enormous and increasing strain on Sufi Islam in J&K, which until now has remained the bedrock of peace and tranquility in the state, ensuring harmony both, within and between communities.

The report also laid thrust on connectivity between the regions divided, both physically and psychologically. Measures to improve infrastructure to promote connectivity and mobility between regions should be undertaken, the report recommended adding unless there is a physical movement of people, especially students, media, and the business community, and the regions are likely to remain divided.

The revival of tourism industry in J&K through special packages and schemes, making people part of the solution so that they can begin to see opportunities within the several problems that confront them rather than focus their energies on the problems alone, promoting inter-regional movement for which the youth in particular and both the Universities in Jammu and Srinagar acting as nodal agencies to facilitate such interactions formed part of the recommendations.