SLOW NEWS DAYS

SOCIAL media has changed our lives completely and made communication faster and easier but in Kashmir, it has snatched away the livelihood of thousands of newspaper hawkers who used to distribute papers to readers daily.

- Mubashir Naik

Parray Rather, 48, from Baramulla's Sopore, who was a newspaper hawker and a regular reader of Kashmir-based papers, used to deliver 400 copies of newspapers to different districts of Kashmir.

"Whatever happened in Kashmir, newspapers here reported facts and figures without any fear and bias," he says. "But nowadays, I only find advertisements in the papers, nothing which can be considered news for readers. I don't have any interest in reading the papers now."

Parray started his newspaper hawking business in 1989 when Kashmir was on the edge of insurgency. Another hawker, Sheikh Aziz, 60, says that since the militancy began in 1989, there was a huge increase in the demand for newspapers. As a result, there were suddenly 200 or more newspaper merchants and hawkers in Kashmir.

"There was virtually no need for newspapers prior to 1988. Then, as militancy increased, so did the demand for newspapers and news," says Aziz.