Kashmir runs on strange arithmetic these days. 

Families with shrinking incomes and vanishing jobs give away gold rings, copper cooking pots, and small savings tucked away for children’s school fees. 

Poor people send money to other poor people. They do this with a determination that defies every textbook on rational economics.

This deserves our full attention because, beyond being heartwarming, it is economically risky and morally complicated.

Kashmir’s economy has sputtered for years. Youth unemployment sits at levels that would spark tensions in most democracies. Tourism, the region’s historical lifeline, arrives in fits and starts. Apple orchards face climate shocks. Small shopkeepers watch margins vanish as prices for essentials climb. 

In this environment, a copper utensil or thin gold chain represents something concrete. It is a hedge against the next medical emergency, the next crop failure, the next month when the shop earns nothing.

These families liquidate their hedges. A mother hands over her wedding bangles and a father empties his coffer where he stored rupees for his daughter’s higher education. They convert physical assets into immediate aid for people they have never met, often in distant countries facing war or disaster. 

Economically, this is the opposite of building wealth. It is the deliberate........

© Kashmir Observer