Walk through any market in Kashmir today and you’ll notice the silence first. Not the peaceful kind, but the uneasy one.

Shopkeepers sit idle. Taxi drivers nap in parked cars. Fruit vendors wait for buyers who don’t come. Sales are down, and it’s not just a bad day or a slow week. It’s becoming a new normal.

Kashmir’s economy, once rooted in self-reliance and steady local production, is fraying. And while political changes and flareups often make headlines, this quieter economic unraveling is just as worrying.

Across the Valley, livelihoods are shrinking, and families are feeling the squeeze.

Older generations remember a different Kashmir. Their parents and grandparents were skilled artisans, farmers, carpenters, and weavers. The region didn’t just consume, it produced.

In villages and towns, people knew how to build homes, grow food, fix tools, and craft items by hand. They took pride in that. Today, those skills are fading.

Young people are turning away from these vocations. Many see them as outdated or unprofitable. Traditional jobs don’t carry the shine of a government post or a tech gig. But the shift has left a gap.

As fewer people grow their own vegetables,........

© Kashmir Observer