Kashmir's Tech Trap

From signal strength to social strain, Kashmir’s digital story is more complicated than it seems.

- Mohammad Hanief

In a remote corner of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, 16-year-old Insha logs into a YouTube channel to revise her physics lessons. The WiFi signal is unstable. The electricity, unreliable. But she keeps going, like thousands of students across the valley, who now rely on digital devices to pursue their education, connect with the outside world, and imagine futures their parents could not have dreamed of.

This is the face of Kashmir’s digital transformation. It's a story of hope, but also one riddled with fault lines.

With smartphones in most pockets, and social media shaping everything from community calls to career ambitions, Kashmir is now a digital society, without having had time to prepare for it.

Over the past decade, a region often isolated by geography and politics has plugged into a hyperconnected world. Yet with this connection comes a double bind: a newfound agency, and an escalating vulnerability.

Smartphones began to penetrate Kashmir’s market in the late 2000s. By 2024, according to TRAI estimates, mobile phone density in Jammu and Kashmir stood at 122.63 per 100 people, one of the highest in the country.

Telecom towers now dot the mountain skyline. Villages once out of reach now get online grocery deliveries. Even amid political turmoil, Kashmiris stream global news, edit videos for In-Stagram, and run e-commerce ventures from home.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital shift. When schools shut down, virtual classrooms filled the gap. A government schoolteacher in Anantnag says, “Some kids attended classes by borrowing their neighbour's smartphone.”

Despite patchy bandwidth, students adapted. Online classes, digital worksheets, and education apps became the norm.

Health services, too, began experimenting.