Dr. Sheikh Ghulam Rasool

Work area : Srinagar district, Kashmir

Dr. Sheikh completed his medical education at Abu Ali Ibn-E-Sena University, Tajikistan in the year 2000, and returned back to Kashmir to start working as a junior resident doctor at Government Medical College, Srinagar. During his first posting in rural areas, got the opportunity to witness the plight of rural Kashmir. He saw that most families are living as bonded labour on one hand and the opportunities for health and education are meager. He also noticed the irregularities and corruption in welfare schemes.

He started visiting PDS shops and government offices along with the villagers – to ensure them an adequate quantity of rations, and get their documents concerning birth, caste, income, domicile etc in order. To address some ongoing corrupt activities of a tehsildar, Dr Sheikh met with an anti-corruption officer and discussed the matter, who in turn gave him a booklet about the RTI Act-2005 and advised him to use the law to gain information and address such issues.

Dr Rasool founded the Jammu and Kashmir RTI movement and started work on the awareness building of communities. At present, he is also Co-Convenor of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCRPI) – a dedicated forum of individuals and organisations working to strengthen the Right to Information.

He has used the RTI to address illegal tree-felling in the Kashmir valley and developed alternative livelihood for people in the Tosa Maidan region. He has also worked consistently to develop agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture and eco-tourism to strengthen the livelihood opportunities for community members. Through SRDE (School for Rural Development and Environment), their collective has made many efforts to save the environment, focusing its work on clearing encroachment from water resources and maintaining them, preventing the cutting of green trees, and establishing community ownership of natural resources, especially in forest regions.