Opinion | Digital Pathways to Empowerment: Kashmiri Women Leading Change

How technology, Digital India, and women-led initiatives are reshaping opportunity, independence, and progress in Kashmir

Kashmiri women forge new pathways towards empowerment using technology. Using digital skills, online marketplaces, and initiatives such as Digital India, they become gainfully employed, independent, and self-sufficient. Technology is thus helping them to transform traditional liabilities into economic and social opportunities. With wider market access and better digital literacy, women are building better futures for themselves and their communities by promoting entrepreneurship, financial inclusions, and community support.

Serious barriers to economic participation persist among women in India, including Kashmir, for a long time. Further, restricted access to education, markets, and job opportunities constrained financial growth. Traditional social norms largely bound women to household roles, whereas mobility issues, safety concerns, and inadequate infrastructure further minimized their participation in economic activities. Women’s potentials and skills remained underutilized, thereby impeding progress both at the individual and community levels.

The Digital India Initiative was launched in 2015 to convert India into a digitally empowered nation by catering to improved digital infrastructure, digital literacy, and increased access to government services through digital means. This move provided an opportunity for women to access information, skills, and markets through digital means in cyberspace. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the digital divide; however, it has also fueled the use of digital tools. The rise of digital markets has provided an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to have flexible employment in these markets.

Digital technologies have become a tremendous source of empowerment for women’s economic and social empowerment in Kashmir since then. Today, smartphones have become a movable business center, connecting a woman to her customers, finances, knowledge, and governmental amenities. Facebook and Instagram have emerged as an economical platform for a woman to advertise her products, develop her own business, and connect with more customers, while developing a networking site too. The online platforms, Amazon Saheli and Flipkart Samarth, help a woman entrepreneur sell her products all over the world and increase her profit margin.

In a region like Kashmir, women not just involve themselves in digital change but form the forerunners. In terms of handling online businesses, groups, and small online enterprises, women showcase their innovative ideas and quality of leadership. Digital marketing, online payment systems, and content development help women to showcase their products, handle finances on their own, and narrate their stories with a presentation of their cultural heritage on the online platform.

In terms of skill sets, digital engagement is also an area of empowerment. Women who, out of timidity, did not feel comfortable with entering the public domain are now negotiating with clients, taking business calls, and coaching others. Seeing them as role models for their communities, they are also inspiring others to engage with the digital economy.

A good example of women’s entrepreneurial acumen can be attributed to Sadia Bhat, who established the first women-driven cab service in Kashmir. This endeavor of Sadia is largely recognized as an effort towards achieving the independence of women in terms of entrepreneurial ventures.

Zahida Akhtar, Dr. Ruveda Salam, Gulshana, Tahira, and Shazia Bhat together sum up the strength, resilience, and changing face of Kashmiri women across diverse fields. Zahida Akhtar, a courageous mountaineer, has conquered many peaks of the world including Mount Everest, thus breaking age-old barriers and inspiration to scores of women for adventure sports and believing in their strengths, physical and mental. Dr. Ruveda Salam became the first woman from Kashmir to enter the Indian Police Service as Superintendent of Police, breaking several barriers in the male-dominated force while pushing young women to take up leadership roles in public service and law enforcement. Coming from rural Pulwama, Gulshana turned a modest initiative on dairy into a flourishing business with more than 150,000 liters of milk production annually, gaining not only financial independence but also generating job opportunities for other women in the locality and proving the worth of grassroots entrepreneurship. Tahira, a youthful innovator from Kulgam, used the limitation of space to her advantage by constructing a thriving mushroom farming business that sustains income year-round and feeds restaurants and urban markets, making a case for how smart agriculture can bring youth and women into its fold. On a parallel note, Shazia Bhat is a engineer turned famous social media influencer in the fashion industry where she has combined new-age creativity with traditional dresses of Kashmir to spread heritage on international platforms. It is also a reflection of a new era where women of Kashmir are not just defining but also bringing about a transformation in success.

Women from Kashmir are using technology to shatter the conventional limits related to business, technological studies, and management. Technology is described to help women from the region expand their businesses, educate themselves, communicate effectively, and make their contribution toward peace, stability, and holistic growth. Technology-led empowerment is helping to produce a brighter and balanced future for Kashmir and leading each step towards Viksit Bharat.

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