Kashmir lensmen brave all odds to keep world aware  

Srinagar, Mar 27: As the clock ticks 9 in the morning in Srinagar, Kashmiri photographers pack their bags with lenses and cameras with a sole aim to click the pictures to make world aware about the havoc which COVID-19 has wreaked across the Valley.

Without any protective equipment, these brave men travel extensively to hospitals, and where ever there is any important event related to the Covid-19. The only tool, they have are routine masks that are available in the market.

“We have no choice other than to leave homes early in the morning and to travel with an aim to get pictures for the agencies for which we work,” says Umar Ganai, senior photographer.

For most of the photographers, life is tough in times of Covid-19. “We travel to hospitals and even quarantine centers and also wherever there are allegations of mishandling of patients including Covid suspects,” said, Firdous Ahmad working with one of the national news channels.

He said he has only one mask to wear to protect himself from getting infected.

Another photographer said now that the pandemic has spread across Kashmir they have become suspects for their own family members. “When I reach home, all family members stay away from me with my parents yelling at me to change the clothes and take a bath,” said one of the freelance photographers.
“We put our lives on stake. We can’t sit in homes. If we do that, we will lose our jobs,” he added.

Similar concerns were expressed by dozens of other photographers, who are working in tough conditions at present across Kashmir.

Another photographer said that they are not able to deliver fully given that fact that they don’t have protective equipment. “We are not able to visit hospitals as we don’t have protective equipment like gowns, N-95 masks etc. In such circumstances, our work has suffered, but we are still in the field trying our best to click whatever is possible for us,” he said.
“We have already suffered in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year, which led to the restrictions and shutdowns till November. Then, Kashmir witnessed winter. In March, we were hoping that things would be back on track, but COVID -19 has once again brought us back to square one,” he said. “Our newspapers are running in losses and we are printing just four pages at present against 12 pages in routine.”

President of Kashmir Press Photographers Association Farooq Javed Khan told KINS that they had contacted the administration and sought protective gear, but their pleas went unheard. “We have only one protective equipment and these are our routine masks and sanitizers. We have to be in the field to make the world aware about the latest on pandemic in Kashmir,” he added. (KINS)

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