Srinagar, June 15 -- ByKhurram Rasool

There's always that one child in the classroom who doesn't sit still, who stares off, who says the wrong thing at the wrong time. The child teachers call a distraction. The one they discipline often, but rarely try to understand.

In Kashmir, these children aren't exceptions. They are everywhere. And they are often hurting in ways that don't look like pain.

We live in a region where conflict is not a chapter in textbooks but a lived experience. Its weight presses into homes and classrooms, into daily routines and young minds.

Children in Kashmir carry trauma as early as they carry schoolbags. Some have seen violence. Some have lost parents. Others live with fear as a background noise.

And still, w...