Biro Devi (40) ecstatically shows a bunker built next to her one-room house in her village, overlooking the Pakistan border in Jammu’s Kathua. Constructed in 2022, she uses the structure meant to protect the family from cross-border firing as a kitchen and a storeroom these days.
For the past three years, her village has not seen any shelling from Pakistan.
“Till three years ago, there was uncertainty. The firing would start particularly during the harvest season. We had to spend nights in school. Our children missed school. The bunker’s construction started in 2021 and it was completed in 2022,” said Ms. Devi.
