Kashmir’s poor forced to cry online for treatment
Srinagar, Mar 18: The digital world in Kashmir these days is filled with scenes and sounds that chill the souls – the sobs of children, some as young as three, their voices pleading for help.
Women and men, hands folded, tears rolling down their faces, begging strangers for money to fund treatments that could save their lives or that of their loved ones.
Dignity is bartered for a shot for life.
Ramadhan, the month of blessings, generosity and charity: the air resonant with prayers and the duty of filling every heart but over the digital world, many Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels run by ‘influencers’ thrive on rave and uncensored content.
This month it is making appeals on behalf of the ‘needy and destitute’.
In these videos, the families are paraded with naked needs: made to cry, wail, shed tears, fold their hands, and beg for help.
One such video shared by a Jobs Page with over 1 lakh followers two days ago has a male kid, about seven years, and a little elder sister crying inconsolably begging for funds to save the life of their father.
Another one shared by a social media influencer with 331K followers has a girl of about six years crying and begging for food.
There are hundreds of such videos where children and women are video graphed - swapped for donations and a viral video.
No one can deny the endless number of people in Kashmir who need help, however, it is the failure of the system and society that is in focus.
Treatment costs can devastate families already on the edge.
Cancer, kidney disease, and disabilities push people to the streets and screens to seek help.
While health insurance schemes like the AB PMJAY SEHAT scheme promises to protect families from catastrophic treatment costs, it is too myopic and too stingy to offer anything for those bereft with real health issues.
Covering the costs of a gallbladder removal may be possible for a family, but funding repetitive chemo cycles for cancer is devastating.
The gaps in the scheme swallow the poor patients.
The ‘Golden Card’ of the SEHAT scheme may look glittery with numbers that are portrayed by the government, but it loses all sheen when a family clutches and parades a sick child to collect money for his or her treatment.
Numerous charities in Kashmir have made significant impact in the healthcare sector by helping the poor, yet nothing seems to be enough to reach these poor people.
The resources of many of these charities often fall short of the sheer demand.
Many others are yet to show what they do with the money people donate.
Perhaps, a streamlining of Sadaqat and Zakat through trusted and verified charities, and enhancing transparency of disbursing of funds received from donations could help our poor from selling their dignity for fulfilling their dire needs.
The ‘staging’ of children and their suffering and recording and spreading it is an act full of violations of legal and moral tenets.
A social media influencer said, “Violating the privacy of children is an offence under Juvenile Justice Act, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and Information Technology Act.”
Muhammad Afaaq Sayeed in his Facebook post termed the trend “excitement of activism crossing definitive red lines”.
