Srinagar, June 27 -- By Zobiya Bhat

Unemployment in Kashmir has acquired a language of percentages.

Governments cite employment figures, opposition parties quote higher ones, economists publish surveys, and headlines track vacancies, recruitment drives and applications.

Numbers dominate the discourse because they seem objective and measure the scale of the crisis, but they cannot explain what the crisis feels like.

That distinction changes everything.

Kashmir's unemployment problem extends far beyond economics, and reaches into family life, public confidence, education and politics.

Any discussion that begins and ends with statistical tables misses the story unfolding behind those figures.

Parents invest years in their children's e...