Tariq Ahmad Dar
As on January 11, 2020, the Supreme Court in a significant ruling said that access to internet is a fundamental right under article 19 of constitution and asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to review all orders imposing curbs in union territory. Recently the Kerala high court in a monumental decision has held ‘right to internet access’ as a fundamental right and the court declared that right to internet becomes the part of right to education as well as right to privacy as well, under article 21 of constitution. In fact the Amnesty international while quoting the declaration from universal declaration of human rights (UDHR) said, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”. As a relevant aside, “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of community; to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits (article 27 of UDHR). In fact, the Amnesty international stated that government of India must restore full access to internet services and ensure that people have full access to health and safety related information.What is internet and why should it be restored fully? Is a question of debate the people of valley are asking again and again? Internet is an endless network of people, information and knowledge providing a variety of information and communication facilities. In just over a decade, communication technologies have become indispensable to the world’s most marginalized and downtrodden people. The increasing necessity of internet access for the world’s most improvised as it relates to health, education, economics, gender equality, employment, arts etc. The arrival of fast speed internet has metamorphosed the world completely and has in turn forced us to change the way of living in this scientific and digital world. It cannot be ruled out that digitization with the arrival of new generation internet has revolutionized almost every field and corner of life. Be it social, political, economic and cultural, every aspect has seen a massive progress and has certainly touched the new heights of development. In the last decade or so, internet facility has gone to new heights and has now penetrated deep in almost every expression of life. India has around 627 million expected internet users in 2019, majority of which constitute the young generations including the students. However, it is very unfortunate, disgusting, and disappointing that while rest of country is going to enjoy 5G mobile internet in the near future, the people especially the students of erstwhile state of jammu and Kashmir are still advised to rely on low speed 2G mobile internet. With this kind of speed and limited internet penetration, the students who are advised to work/study from home still face many conundrums and difficulties to access the online tutorials and other academic materials of their curriculum. If this isn’t the clear violation of the core values of democracy then what? This completely violates Art 21(right to life). The union home minister’s claim while he was amending the j and k reorganization bill, 2019 in parliament that erstwhile state will see a new rise in development post abrogation of Art 370 but, unfortunately, it is yet to come true in real sense. By formulating the new policies of online teaching due to Covid-19 induced shutdown, it seems like government is pretending to show sympathy towards the students of erstwhile state. However, the irony is, why didn’t the government formulate such kind of policies when the state was put in complete siege and brutal lockdown post abrogation of Art 370. Where were your online classes when the students had nothing to do but to fear the draconian lockdown and severe restrictions during the period of five months? Do we have any estimate of the kind of trauma the students of erstwhile state have gone through? The government needs to address the needs, demands, and aspirations of the students of state and also ensure them of uninterrupted access to internet which is fundamental to them.
It is the devoir, responsibility and onus of government to assure students who are traversing through tough times amid the covid-19 pandemic that there will be a complete restoration of fast speeding mobile internet so that the students of the valley do not feel any sort of backlash and panic and in turn help students to continue their preparations without missing a portion of their curriculum.
The wide spread internet shutdowns has lead India to be known as ‘internet shutdown capital of world’. In 2019 alone, India has had 93 instances of internet shutdowns, according to internet shutdown tracker. The recent initiative of ‘national broadband mission’ that aims to take internet to more people including the rural India in particular, it would have been a sign of relief if it covered the people of erstwhile state in it. The erstwhile state has experienced the longest ever internet shutdown in a democratic country, they need more assistance and attention from the government. India accounts for 68% of all worldwide shutdowns. Due to the frequent clampdown of internet in the erstwhile state, almost every aspect of life has suffered a lot, be it social, economic and most importantly the education sector. The students who in fact are the most valuable and important resources, need to be empowered with every fresh development. We need to inculcate in them the scientific temper, their potential need to be harnessed and utilized in the best possible way, provided, they are facilitated with every new development including free access to internet. Ignoring the demands, needs, and aspirations of students would have catastrophic and devastating impacts on social, political, and economic chains of country. Now, keeping all the concerns, be it health, be it education or economic, in mind the government and the policy makers should take a keen attention towards these issues and try to address the public concerns especially students who have already been hit hard by the prolonged shutdown after august 5, 2019. The government needs to reshuffle, reorient, and reorganize the present approach of policy making so that the affected people of j and k are benefitted the most. I think it is the devoir, responsibility and onus of government to assure students who are traversing through tough times amid the covid-19 pandemic that there will be a complete restoration of fast speeding mobile internet so that the students of the valley do not feel any sort of backlash and panic and in turn help students to continue their preparations without missing a portion of their curriculum.
(The author is B.Sc 2nd Year (Hon’s) Chemistry at AMU Aligarh. Views of the author are his own [email protected])