"Dastaq-e-Shopian a path breaking initiative of District Administration Shopian to knock the doors of unemployed youth to Achieve the Quality Employment by establishing Self Employment Units in a hassle free manner through an integrated portal. I hope this portal will be utilised by the youth of Shopian in best possible way."
Shopian or Shupiyan is a far flung hilly area
which was carved out from Pulwama district
and was given the status of Hill District on
01-04-2007. The geologist Frederic Drew
stated that Shopian derived its name from a
distortion of word shah-payan, i.e. “royal
stay” because it used to be one of the
wazarat headquarters of mughals.
However, the local people hold the view that
Shopian was earlier named as “Shin-Van”
meaning “snow forest” . The historic Mughal
road passes through the district.
The district is also known as Apple Bowl of
J&K State, as the district is famous for
Horticulture sector, particularly, for the
production of apples, which is the main source
of livelihood of the people.
It is land-locked from all sides by districts like
Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam etc. It is located in
the foothills of Pir Panjal range at an altitude
of 2146 meters above sea level and is
spread over an area of 612.86 sq. kms with a
population of 2.68 Lacs. Shopian has a sex
ratio of 951 females for every 1,000 males,
and a literacy rate of 62.49%. Population of
the district is predominantly Muslims followed
by Hindus and Sikhs. The population
comprises of various groups of diverse nature
like Gujars, Bakerwals, Pustons, Dogarwals,
Minels and predominantly Kashmiris. The
district comprises of 7 tehsils having 232
villages which are a part of 98 Gram
Panchayats.
Youth are the largest subsection with 43% of
the population between 15-40 years.
Despite the tremendous potential, the district
has been the hot-bed of militancy for the last
three decades. Youth have been the worst
victims of the conflict. The systematic and
consistent propaganda against the
developmental policies of the government by
the terror outfits and their sympathisers
resulted in a significant disillusionment of the
youth. It was further aggravated by the lack of
opportunities and exposure coupled with
the lack of effective outreach. Besides,
notion that government offices cause undue
delays in processing documents together with
rampant favouritism and corruption
prevented the aspiring youth from
approaching the government offices.
As a result, despite various efforts by the
government towards productive engagement
of the youth through various employment
generation schemes, a small number turned
up to benefit from these schemes.