Latoo (Jammu and Kashmir): The sun is already up but the early morning coldness in the remote border village of Latoo can be seen in the fog coming out of Sayed Imtyaz’s mouth. A class 12 commerce student, Imtiyaz is tying his shoelaces half-heartedly when his excited classmate Rukhsana shows up. Rukhsana is eager to know what Imtiyaz is going to study that day from his teachers, so that she can learn that from Imtiyaz later.
But Imtiyaz is upset, because he has to travel a couple of kilometres and then climb a treacherous mountain route to get internet connectivity for his online classes. This happens daily. Boys of Latoo village, Kargil district have to travel approximately two kilometres and then climb a mountain, Uthalo, to get internet connectivity. The girls wait for the boys to return in the evening with the study material.
Due to the presence of the army on Uthalo mountain and the treacherous route one has to take, villagers of Latoo do not allow girl students to attend online classes. Photo: Syed Iftikar
Situated on the banks of river Shingo, Latoo village came into existence in 1965, after the Indo-Pakistan war. The original village Dreyloung was divided into two parts when armies from both sides captured portions of it and established their posts. Dreyloung was divided into Gultari Skardu controlled by Pakistan and Latoo controlled by India.
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The village is just 19 km away from district headquarters, but has no internet connectivity, and has very poor mobile connectivity. Mobile phones become a useless product to carry when you enter the village unless you are a photographer. The village that did not have a motorable road till 2016 and lack basic facilities even till date, internet connectivity has never been a priority. The elders of the village have never felt the need for the internet that much.
“When you don’t have a proper road, you are facing water crisis, you are not economically well off and are constantly worried by the thoughts of war, internet connectivity will never cross your mind. We have so many other problems that internet never made it to the list of grievances,” observes Asghar Ali, one of the village heads.
Search for the internet ends on the top of a mountain
But this year when schools started online classes for students after nationwide lockdown was announced in late March to contain the spread of virus, internet connectivity has become an absolute necessity. The students of the village started searching a location as close to the village as possible where they can access internet.
“Students came out of their homes with mobile phones in their hands and distress in their eyes, searching for internet connectivity. It was kind of a student parade. We, elders, were appalled to see them so disturbed,” Asghar recalls.
The search for internet has ended on the top of the mountain Uthalo some two kilometres away from the village. Internet on Uthalo is like “water on Mars” discovery for students of Latoo. Since then every morning, students would be seen climbing Uthalo with their bags, lunch boxes, mobile phones and hope.
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But on the top of Uthalo are the Indian army posts, maintaining the vigil which makes it hard for families to send their girls to mountain top to access internet.
“Our parents are wary of letting us go to Uthalo, because the area has army presence, and is mostly uninhabited. We have to respect the fears of our parents. Also, the route to Uthalo is not easy, any kind of carelessness could be fatal,” Nazia, a class 9 student, fears.
Now, the boys of the village who in March put a water tank, soaps and sanitisers at the entry of the village, so that nobody enters the village without washing their hands, has taken the extra responsibility of teaching their female classmates.
A notice greets those entering Latoo village, requesting them to wash hands and to follow COVID-19 protocols. Photo: Rouf Fida
The boys of the village go to Uthalo and take online classes. On their return, the boys teach girls of their classes what they learnt and share study material with them.
“This is very hectic. First you travel 2 kms, then climb a mountain and then come back and teach. By the end of the day, I feel so tired that I don’t even open my books. But we have to do this for the larger good of our village lest the girls of our village will not be able to compete with other girls,” says Imtiyaz.
Army presence on the mountain
Reaching on time on atop Uthalo to attend online classes is a big problem for students. Due to changing class timings, students have missed several online lectures.
Sayed Iftikar, a post graduate student, says that because of no internet connectivity in the village, he does not get notifications regarding his classes and changing time tables.
“Sometimes teachers in our class WhatsApp group change class timings or give some assignments. Since we can’t stay on the top of Uthalo all the time, and the village has no internet connectivity, we miss the lecture or fail to submit assignments on time,” Iftikar adds.
Also, because of the army presence on Uthalo, the students cannot climb early in the morning and late in the evening, thus they miss morning and evening classes.
“Even after reaching the top of Uthalo the internet speed is very poor. We struggle a lot to clearly understand the lecture. The speed is so terrible that we can’t simultaneously attend class and download study material on the same phone. We have to keep another phone to download study material while we attend lectures,” says Iftikar.
This village has only one government middle school and no private schools. Mohd Hussain of Latoo is a teacher in government middle school in another village some 20kms away from Latoo. He could also be seen from time to time on Uthalo to access the internet.
“Not just students, teachers also need internet to keep themselves updated. I go to Uthalo to learn new things and new teaching techniques so that my teaching learning process becomes more effective,” says Hussain.
According to Hussain, the civil administration in March asked teachers to stay in their own villages and take online or community classes there. Since the village has no internet, taking online classes have not been possible, so Hussain with few educated villagers started community classes.
But Hussain is a middle school teacher and can teach only up to class 8. Post graduate students of the village are all the time on Uthalo to attend their online classes and rest educated villagers are not qualified enough to teach higher class students.
Inaccessible road
Not just in COVID-19 lockdown, the higher-class students of the village need internet all the time, particularly during harsh winters when the temperature dips as low as –20 degree Celsius. In winters, higher class students either have to stay in Kargil or have to wait for the winter to end, because the three kilometre road that connects the village with the main road is blocked by heavy snow for weeks on end.
During the harsh winters, students from Latoo village find it difficult to access roads and to reach schools. Photo: Sayed Iftikar
The poor villagers work hard in summers and save money for the accommodation of their children in Kargil in winters. Most of the students cannot afford to stay in Kargil, as almost 80% of villagers live below poverty line. This is one of the reasons that the village has produced less than 20 graduates and only four post graduates so far.
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“We constructed a temporary three kilometre road in 2015 without any assistance from the government thinking that it will help our students in their higher education. A member of each family worked on the construction of the road. But it is still not enough because it mostly remains closed during winters,” says Laila Banoo, a local woman.
Journalist-turned-politician Sajjad Kargili says that few other villages like Kaksar, Badgam and Shimsha also do not have internet connectivity and students there too run from pillar to post. “We have requested administration many times to provide any kind of network so that online classes can become a possibility and the students face less trouble,” he informs.
Sensitive location geopolitically
According to Muhammad Hanifa, district president of the National Conference for Kargil, “one of the main reasons behind no internet connectivity is the location of the village. It shares a boundary with Pakistan, and is a very sensitive place strategically. So, before installing any kind of network we have to get the army’s permission first”.
Due to the lack of internet, the education of the students from Latoo village has suffered. Photo: Syed Iftikar
Locals say that they have asked telecom companies several times to install new towers or increase the range, but the telecom companies have not heeded to their requests.
Like the famous catch phrase “winter is coming” which scares characters in the famous Game of Thrones series, the onset of winter sends a chill down the spine of every student, both literally and figuratively. Uthalo is covered by snow soon, and climbing it in winters is impossible.
Besides, there is no certainty as to when offline classes would commence as the COVID-19 vaccine is not yet available. The villagers might not be able to gauge how much their geographical location has affected the education of their kids, but they definitely understand how important it is to have internet connectivity in the village.
Rouf Fida is the editor of Srinagar-based online portal The Curtain Raiser.