While the city glittered with lamps and fireworks this Diwali, a quieter and more heartfelt celebration unfolded at the Balgrah Child Care Centre, where PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti spent the festival of lights with orphans who have no parents to light a lamp beside them.
For these orphaned children, the poor and the needy, Diwali is a festival that can often feel painfully empty. This year, it was brightened by a visitor who chose to share the day with them.
Afterwards, Mufti described the experience on social media. “Spent some beautiful Diwali moments with the children at Balgrah Child Care Centre, Jammu. Their smiles and warmth made the occasion very special,” she wrote on her social media handle.
She also praised the institution that has become home and family to these children. “I was deeply impressed by the Centre’s dedication to providing them loving care and quality education,” she said.
But her post was more than a festive greeting. Mufti used it to appeal to the government on two issues she said would decide the future of the Centre and the orphans who depend on it.
“I sincerely urge the government to extend the Centre’s land lease permanently and provide scholarships for children pursuing higher education after leaving the Centre,” she wrote.
The first demand goes to the heart of the Centre’s survival. A permanent lease would end any uncertainty over the land on which it stands so that the orphans it shelters need never fear for their only home.
The second looks beyond the Centre’s walls. For children raised in care without family support, the toughest test often comes on leaving, when the shelter ends but the cost of college and professional courses begins. Scholarships for those pursuing higher education, Mufti suggested, would help them continue their studies and build independent lives.
Her appeal comes at a time when she has been vocal on land and lease issues in J&K. Her party has formally submitted a land rights and regularisation bill aimed at regularising long-held land and lease properties and ending arbitrary evictions.
For the orphans of Balgrah, the day was about sweets, lamps and laughter. For everyone who reads Mufti’s post, it carries a lasting question: will the government give such centres security of tenure, and their children a path to higher education?
