The floods in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 killed at least 150 people, 40 of them in the Saddal village. (File Photo)
In a small village in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, Rakesh and his family of eight have been living in a tent of a home for the last 17 months. The deadly floods of September 2014 devastated the Saddal village, the horror of which is etched in this families' reminiscences.
The 16-year-old boy has carefully preserved soiled books, the memories of a time when he used to study in a government school. To feed his family in acute poverty, Rakesh is now willing to work as a labourer.
"I am interested in studying further, I read my old books. But I am now thinking of joining my father as a labourer to help the family", he said.
His sister Rinka at 17 spends her days doing household chores and taking care of her four younger siblings.
The father, Puran Singh, who now barely earns enough money as a daily wage labourer to feed the family recounts the time when he used to be a farmer and was able to send his children to school, while he mourns the ones lost in the floods.
"My mother, brother, aunt, niece died in the floods. If government does not help us, what will we do?" said Puran.
He wants to migrate to some other place where he could earn a livelihood and his children could study.
The floods in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 killed at least 150 people, 40 of them in the Saddal village. The government's promise to rehabilitate the surviving villagers has not seen the light of day.
The state claims to have helped many villagers restart their lives. "We arranged for schooling for the 51 families who shifted to Udhampur and also gave sheds to 26 other families," said Shahid Iqbal, the District Collector of Udhampur.
For the ones who did not migrate, life has been an unending struggle in Saddal village where children are losing hope of a better future.