“Hartal (Strike) Happens Here Everyday”: Understanding Impact of Disruption on Education in Kashmir

ABSTRACT Sustainable Development Goal 4 promotes inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. However, regions with ongoing socio-political conflict suffer disruption to education and learning. We situate our work in Kashmir, India, affected by socio-political conflict for more than three decades. We did multiple field visits and conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with parents, teachers, students, and members of a non-government organization that runs Community Learning Centers in Kashmir. Our findings present the barriers in education caused by disruption and the role of community learning centers in overcoming the barriers within these contextual constraints. Further, we discuss engaging researchers and policymakers to leverage human infrastructure, embedding uncertainty into the design, infrastructuring trust, and content usability to develop solutions to make education more accessible. Despite significant research in HCI and Education, research in this particular context is under-explored, and our work contributes to filling this gap.