‘When we go home, first thing we are told is to take bath’
Srinagar, March 27 (KINS): As the clock ticks 9 in the morning in Srinagar, Kashmiri photographers pack their bags with lenses and cameras they have with a sole aim to get best pictures in times of pandemic Covid-19 that has already claimed one life in the Valley.
Without any protective equipment, these brave men travel extensively to hospitals, and where there any important event related to the Covid-19. The only tool they have routine masks that are available in the market.
“We have no choice other than to leave homes early in the morning and to travel with aim of getting best pictures for the agencies for which we work,” says Umar Ganai, senior photographer in Kashmir. Umar, a resident of downtown Srinagar, is one of the photographers working here in Kashmir.
For most of the Photographer’s, life is tough in times of Covid-19.
“We travel to hospitals and even quarantine centers and also wherever there are allegations of mishandling of patients including Covid suspects,” Firdous Ahmad working with one of the National TV told KINS. He said he has only one mask to wear every day to protect from getting infected.
Another Photographer said now that the Pandemic has spread across Kashmir with people getting infected despite government taking every step to prevent Covid-19 from spreading further, they have become suspects for their own family members. “When I reach home, all family members stay away from me with my parents yelling at me to change the clothes and to take a bath,” says one of the freelance photographer wished not to be named. “We put our lives on the line and can’t sit home and if we do that, we will loose jobs.”
Similar concerns were expressed by dozens of other photographers who are working tough conditions at present across Kashmir.
Another photographer, who didn’t not wish to be named, said that they are not able to deliver fully given that fact that they don’t have protective equipment. “We are not able to visit hospitals as we don’t have protective equipment like gowns, N-95 masks etc. In such circumstances, our work has suffered, but we are still in the field trying our best to click whatever is possible for us,” he said. He said when he reaches home in the evening, first thing he is told by his family members to take a bath.
“We had already suffered due to the lockdown triggered by roll back of Article 370 in August last year which remained on till November last year. Then, Kashmir witnessed winter and in March, we were hoping that things would be back on track, but Covid-19 once again damaged everything,” he said. “Our newspapers are running in losses and we are printing just four pages at present against 12 pages in routine.”
Kashmir press photographers association Farooq Javed Khan told KINS that they even contacted the administration and sought protective gear, but their pleas fell on the deaf ears. “We have only one protective equipment and it’s a routine mask plus sanitizers. We have to be in the field and make world aware about the latest on pandemic in Kashmir,” he told KINS.
– KINS