Srinagar, June 20 -- The lump wasn't supposed to be there. A teacher found it while straightening Amina's collar in a Kupwara classroom. The nine-year-old didn't react. Her family hadn't noticed. But that small swelling was a sign of something much bigger.

That swelling was a goiter, a telltale sign that something deep inside her body had gone off balance. And she's not alone.

A 2022 district health survey in Kupwara examined 2,700 schoolchildren. More than 270 had goiters. One in ten. Among ten-year-old girls, the number jumped to one in seven.

Goiters, once thought to be a condition of the past, are visible again in Kashmir classrooms.

Zoom out, and the picture gets worse. Across four districts - Kupwara, Shopian, Bandipora, and Gan...