Superstition keeps Kashmir s tribal women from accessing birth control
Women in Kashmir s nomadic tribal communities are often married as teenagers and end up having multiple children they can t support, as their husbands forbid access to birth control.
Research has shown that tribal women in Kashmir are more prone to high-risk pregnancies
Rukaiya Jan, a woman from the Gujjar tribal community in Kashmir, was married at 15 years old, a common practice among Kashmir s nomadic herders.
Now 35, Jan has six children. The birth of her seventh baby, a girl, ended in tragedy, as the newborn died near a hospital gate several miles away from her home. Jan was unable to reach the hospital in time.