Strategic Hustle: How Young Kashmiris Are Embracing Entrepreneurship

By Uzma Qadir Mir

In a bustling Srinagar apartment, a 24-year-old Kashmiri graduate navigates her laptop, managing orders for a small handicraft store she operates through Instagram.

Each order signifies a tale of innovative survival, where young individuals seize opportunities within their grasp.

A stack of applications adorns a corner desk, showcasing strategic planning as youths transform ideas into reality in a system characterized by prolonged delays.

The transition from yearning for a secure government position to establishing a digital micro-enterprise is known in sociological circles as strategic pragmatism.

For years, the youth invested time, effort, and resources in pursuing public sector jobs that remained elusive.

By 2026, they are redirecting their ambitions towards endeavors that yield prompt results, even if the gains are modest or uncertain.

Laptops illuminate the night, freelance profiles replace examination forms, and content pages evolve into virtual storefronts.

These subtle yet significant shifts exemplify a generational reevaluation of aspirations unfolding in real-time.

Unemployment persists in Jammu and Kashmir. Official statistics indicate an overall rate of 6.1 percent, with youth unemployment nearly doubling the national average.

Recruitment delays, exam cancellations, and limited job openings have turned waiting into a precarious strategy.

As opportunity costs escalate, digital skills, small businesses, and remote work emerge as more viable alternatives than pursuing degrees leading nowhere.

Engaging in a coding project for a firm in Dubai, securing freelance design contracts from Europe, or operating an Instagram-based handicraft store now epitomize success.

While government jobs still hold symbolic value, symbolizing stability and social mobility, the arithmetic of scarcity and delay has prompted young people to diversify their paths.

Mission Youth and Mission YUVA, by endorsing nano-enterprises valued at five to six lakh rupees, have subtly validated this shift. Small-scale ventures prioritizing sustainability over scale are proliferating, bridging the void left by conventional employment avenues.

Micro-startups and digital initiatives are now fueling Kashmir’s economic vision, with freelance designers, online educators, YouTube creators, and remote tech professionals setting new benchmarks.

Income levels fluctuate, platforms evolve, and these ventures offer immediacy that traditional employment often lacks.

They cultivate a sense of empowerment within existing frameworks, transforming skills into tangible outcomes and motivating young individuals to act decisively and purposefully.

However, this pragmatic approach comes with its own challenges.

Digital earnings are unpredictable, social security is absent, and long-term planning becomes arduous.

The idealized depiction of success on social media creates psychological strain, and personal failure can feel overwhelming when projects falter.

Emotional stress intensifies during adolescence and early adulthood, where self-identity intersects with economic instability.

Inadequate guidance and support allow anxiety and self-doubt to fester, placing a significant emotional burden on strategic pragmatism.

Nevertheless, the new economic avenues are deeply rooted in local culture, skills, and context.

Content creators, online educators, and small entrepreneurs draw from regional crafts, language, and tourism services.

Diversified income alleviates familial pressures, and skill-based accomplishments bolster confidence in a generation grappling with constraints.

Freelance contracts and digital transactions signify a growing sense of agency.

These shifts pose pertinent questions for policy and society.

Digital work now complements traditional employment as a significant component of youth livelihoods, bringing flexibility alongside exposure to uncertainty.

Kashmiri youth stand to benefit from career guidance tailored to remote and freelance work realities, skill accreditation aligned with market demands, mental health support, and financial literacy suited to variable incomes.

Recognizing gig workers in policy formulation offers a path to stability, transforming short-term survival tactics into more secure economic foundations.

Strategic pragmatism epitomizes intelligence and adaptability, operating within constraints rather than pure choice.

It signifies a generation navigating within structural gaps, showcasing courage and innovation.

The onus is on institutions to match this adaptability, offering pathways, safeguards, and realistic assistance to transition temporary solutions into sustainable progress.

The narrative of Kashmiri youth transcends examination halls and bulletin boards, now unfolding on screens, in compact workspaces, through social media boutiques, and freelance endeavors.

These endeavors reflect thoughtful deliberation and calculated risk-taking, driven by a resolute desire to forge ahead.

The looming question is whether institutions will bolster these trajectories or continue to burden youth with unrelenting pressures.

A young entrepreneur closing her laptop at midnight pushes the boundaries of what is achievable, asserting agency within a rigid system, and reshaping ambition.

Kashmiri youth have adapted. The upcoming years will reveal if institutions can keep pace.

• The author is pursuing Master’s in Public Administration at a Delhi-based University. She can be reached at [email protected].