J&K: Up the hill with ice boxes, trailed by ambulance, jabbing 10 at a time

Sunday, 13 June 2021Newsdesk

Even as the sun scorches the mountain top, Ghulam Nabi Awan’s mud house is refreshingly cool. Every year, at the start of the summer months, Ghulam Nabi Awan’s family with their livestock trek 5 km from Jampathri, their village in Keller tehsil of South Kashmir’s Shopian district, to this mud house in the upper reaches.

New Delhi, 13 June 2021

“We stay here for six months (April to September) and take our sheep out to graze. We go downhill to Keller only if we need supplies or have a hospital visit,” says Awan, 54. As per news report of The Indian Express, this year, the family — Awan, his wife Naseema, their five children, aged between 20 and 30, and their spouses — had to make at least two extra trips downhill: to get their Covid vaccines.Awan and Naseema are from the nomadic Gujjar community, the largest tribal group in Jammu and Kashmir, which makes up about 50 per cent of the population in Keller tehsil.

Source -The Indian Express