No internet, no jobs: People in Occupied Kashmir board 'Internet Express'

SRINAGAR: Braving the snow and cold, Abrar Ahmad, 18, is one of the thousands of Kashmiris who regularly spend hours journeying on a packed train just so that they can go online as the region grapples with the longest internet blackout imposed by Modi government.

Stepping off the crammed train – dubbed the “Internet Express” by Kashmiris – in the nearby town of Banihal, the passengers make a beeline for cafes where they pay up to 300 rupees ($4.20) for an hour’s broadband.

“I couldn’t have afforded to miss this opportunity,” Ahmad told the Thomson Reuters Foundation after filling out an online job application at a teeming internet cafe, where dozens of others hit by the 162-day internet shutdown queued behind him.

“There is no one else in my family to take care of my three younger siblings and me,” he said, adding that his father, a mason, lost his leg in a road accident last year.

Indian Occupied Kashmir has been without broadband and mobile data services since Aug. 5 when India’s government revoked the special status of its only Muslim-majority state, splitting Jammu and Kashmir in two.

Despite a United Nations declaration in 2016 that the internet is a human right, shutdowns have risen in recent years as governments from the Philippines to Yemen said they were necessary for public safety and national security.

India claimed it cut communications to prevent unrest in the valley, where more than 40,000 people have been martyred since 1989.”

LIMITED RESOURCES

The disputed region’s internet ban has impacted everything from relationships to access to healthcare, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia policy director at global digital rights group Access Now.

But he prefers the lengthy trek to Banihal to trying to get online at one of the hundreds of internet kiosks the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has set up in the valley, where demand hugely outstrips supply.

It has done anything but that, say locals.

Outside a courier company in Srinagar, two delivery executives chatted idly by a bonfire, saying no internet meant no packages.

“We are the only two who still come to the office. Some 50 boys have lost their jobs,” said Touseef Ahmad. “If the internet is not restored soon, I can lose my job.”

Dark future

Tourism – for decades the backbone of the scenic region’s economy – has been badly hit.

Every year, people from across India flock to the Himalayan region to enjoy its snow-capped mountains and scenic Dal Lake, home to hundreds of ornately-carved houseboats whose owners rely on tourism.

Bashir Ahmad Sultani, president of Kashmir’s Shikara (Boat) Association, said there was no work for more than 4,000 boatmen.

“We are going through very bad times. Some of us are not even able to arrange two square meals for our families,” said boatman Mohammad Shafi. “We are looking at a dark future.”

The restriction has served a major blow to tour operators, hoteliers and artisans as well.

Jeelani, 52, said he has been struggling to pay for his daughter’s tuition and daily groceries since his monthly salary was slashed by three-quarters to Rs6,000 in October.

“I have been told that I can’t get even this amount if tourists don’t start arriving in a few weeks,” he added.

The government has not said when internet will be restored, despite calls from civil society and the United Nations.

Without it, many locals say they may have to take up manual jobs such as on construction sites – or even pack up and leave.