Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Oct 1: As the Valley remained offline for the 54rd day consecutive day, the online stores operating from the region are out of business, affecting the livelihood of hundreds of entrepreneurs.
Over the last few years many Kashmiri youngsters have opened online business ventures to showcase their products to the whole world. Humaira is one such entrepreneur who has developed a niche in the online business in Kashmir.
For the last 4-5 years she has been working tirelessly to revive the art of crochet in the Valley and has roped in a few other girls into the business as well. “All was going well until 5th of August. We were expecting a good business this year and had received lots of orders. But all is lost now,” she said.
Her venture – Craft World Kashmir- has nearly 40, 000 followers on Instagram where she displays her innovative works including floral and crochet jewelry. She has been successful to explore this huge following as majority of her orders come from the social networking sites. “We receive majority of our orders from Facebook and Instagram. We display our work there only. Our business was going well before the internet blockade. This harsh decision from Government has wasted all my efforts,” she said.
All the channels of communication were switched off on August 5 when the Parliament withdrew the special status of the State. Although the measures were taken to stop an immediate reaction from Valley, it badly affected the economy of the State. The worst sufferers were the startups like Craft World Kashmir whose business was entirely dependent on the internet.
“Several orders are ready but we are unable to dispatch them. We have suffered huge losses as we were expecting many future orders. We used to get 4-5 orders everyday but everything has dried up now. We are sitting idle as our work depends on the orders that we receive. We used to get 4-5 orders every day,” Humaira said.
There are nearly 14 girls who work with the Craft Work and all of them are from less privileged economic families. “It was the only source of livelihood for many of them. I do not know how they run their homes these days. I am not sure whether they are able to manage their two meals or not,” Humaira said, adding that she is not in touch with the rest of her team as mobile network is also down.
She said that the Government should restore the internet as access to it is the basic right of every individual. “It is our right and source of livelihood,” she said. “We can only wait for the restoration of the internet as it is the only medium which connects us with our customers. We cannot afford to move out of the State as we fear for our safety. Parents would also not allow us to shift to other State in the prevailing circumstances”, she added.
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