690 Times internet snapped by GoI since 2012, J&K tops with 418 internet shutdowns: Report
India has witnessed at least 690 internet shutdowns for the last ten years, Jammu Kashmir tops that list with a total of 418 documented internet shutdowns, Internetshutdowns.in reported.
In the past ten years, the longest communication blockade was imposed in Kashmir. The Internet was shut down on the evening of 4th August 2019 for 552 days. On 5 August 2019 Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated by the Modi-led Government.
Kargil district of Ladakh faced a shutdown of 145 days, which was imposed in August 2019 on the erstwhile State of Jammu Kashmir.
The real-time database of its kind in India documented “almost” every single Internet shutdown since 2012, starting with the first imposed in Jammu Kashmir on January 26.
However, in the same year, the database puts the total number of internet shutdowns in India at three, while Jammu Kashmir witnessed the highest number of shutdowns alone that the said number.
Internetshutdowns.in gathers its information through news and publicly available Internet shutdown orders issued by respective state governments. All reports are put through a rigorous cross-verification process by the team to verify their authenticity. It also files routine applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005, to obtain details about shutdowns.
In Jammu Kashmir, the highest number of shutdowns (175) were recorded in the district Pulwama of south Kashmir, as per the data. Anantnag, with 142 internet shutdowns since 2012, as per the data falls second in the list.
Shopian, as per the database, has recorded merely 13 shutdowns since 2012. The number, however, is much higher. Kashmir’s summer capital, as per the data, has seen a total of 132 internet shutdown.
According to the Top 10VP report for 2022, Internet outages have cost India $174.6 million just this year. Outages that last for an extended period of time have a significant negative impact on people’s quality of life and directly result in job losses, the research notes.
Economically too, Kashmir was the worst hit region, which had no access to the Internet for more than 18 months. A report by the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries claims that from August 5, 2019, to July 2020, firms experienced losses totaling Rs 40,000 crore.
At least 5,000 salespeople in the tourism and mobile services sectors did not get paychecks in the months of August, September, and October until November 2020. In addition, 4.96 lakh people in Kashmir lost their jobs.
The Chamber said that losses resulting from the disruption of online transactions and shopping after August 5 increased as a result of the Internet blackout. The worst-hit industries in Kashmir are start-ups, the telecommunications industry, and courier services.
