I Think: Mainstream Indian media does a pathetic job when it comes to reporting sexual violence in Kashmir
Yashraj Sharma, journalist, Srinagar
I am originally from Rajasthan, but I moved to Srinagar to work for a Kashmiri news site about two months ago. There is so much happening here that you literally have no time to read other news. Protests, demonstrations, deaths, funerals — this is what I read in newspapers everyday.
Violence in Kashmir is so much that I always keep a copy ready for a desk report on grenade attack, stone-pelting, cordon, protests, etc — when it happens, I just need to change the location and names.
I think Kashmir is yet to see the first wave of feminism. In my experience, women’s rights in Kashmir are not good. There is domestic violence and issues of basic freedom that many people take for granted in other places. I have not seen a girl in jeans-top, except tourists and non-Kashmiris. Not covering the head is a kind of rebellion here.
The mainstream Indian media does a pathetic job when it comes to reporting sexual violence in the Kashmir Valley. They need to realise that Kashmiris are people — not stone-pelters, terrorists, jihadis and other things of that sort. They don’t show the struggle of living a common Kashmiri faces each day. After Burhan Wani’s death, Kashmir was shut for at least four months. How did people survive those days?
During a shutdown, one can’t even find basic things for survival, unless you are super-aware about the secret back-doors to some shops. I have lived through many such days in the Valley. I couldn’t even buy a bottle of water.
The situation of Kashmir can only change and the voices of Kashmiri women heard only when Indian media shuts down its propaganda. The Indian media needs to be unbiased about certain issues about Kashmir, including rape cases. But this depends on the ownership of the media — who owns the media is directly related to the content being broadcasted.
Even if there are ideological differences about Kashmir, the Indian media should at least report about the human rights and sexual violences that occur here. But, sadly, that doesn’t happen.
The local newspapers do their job better. They report on rape and sexual violence, and have credibility among the local people. The Indian media should realise that Kashmiris have many of issues that the rest of India faces. Like the rest of India, they too much must heard.
