Seven years after removal of Article 370, J&K expands hospitals & colleges while PoJK is engulfed in violence

New Delhi: In the years since India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, officials in New Delhi have pointed to expanded hospitals, universities, and local councils as evidence of improved capacity of the union territory. Across the Line of Control, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, residents and independent observers describe persistent shortages in basic services. Add to this, increased violence by occupying Pakistani military forces. An estimated over 90 people have died in PoJK (Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir) in the last 2 months.

In governance parameters, the Indian union territory has grown leaps. Healthcare illustrates the gap most clearly. In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, two All India Institutes of Medical Sciences have been established, one each in Jammu and Kashmir, alongside a number of new government medical colleges. The region has also been brought under the national Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, which aims to cover hospital costs for eligible families. Indian authorities say annual medical student intake now exceeds 1,100.

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In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, health facilities remain limited. Local reports and civil society assessments cite a doctor-to-population ratio of roughly one to 3,900, well below the World Health Organization’s guidelines.

Residents frequently travel to hospitals outside of the occupied region for procedures that cannot be performed locally, often at significant personal expense amid high inflation.

Education follows a similar pattern. UT of J&K, hosts an Indian Institute of Technology, an Indian Institute of Management and several universities. Skill-development programmes and technical training have been expanded with the stated aim of integrating young people into the wider economy. In PoJK, there are just a few higher-education institutions, many of them underfunded. Graduates commonly leave for jobs in the Gulf, contributing to what local analysts describe as a brain drain.

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Governance structures also differ. On the Indian side, the Panchayati Raj system of elected village councils has been strengthened, with direct benefit transfers and digital payment mechanisms intended to reduce leakage in welfare schemes.

In PoJK the so-called “legislative assembly” operates under the oversight of the Kashmir Council and federal authorities in Islamabad. Critics, including local activists, say the body has constrained fiscal and administrative powers.

Protests over electricity shortages, flour subsidies, and resource royalties have been met with brute force and internet restrictions.