Bilal Bashir Bhat
The Kashmiri online platform, Pe’nd Online, which organizes live panel discussions with prominent Kashmiri professionals from around the globe on pertinent day-to-day issues of Jammu and Kashmir has been felicitated with a special recognition award for ‘engagement in difficult times’ by the University of East Anglia (UEA), one of the top Universities of United Kingdom.
The online platform, Pe’nd Online, mainly operated from England, has been active with their engagement within Kashmir on issues pertinent to society. Pe’nd online has been gaining in its popularity in Kashmir as one of the only platforms that do important discussions on issues related to the society, polity, economy, culture, education and sustenance of people in the native Kashmiri language.
The online platform is mainly based on Facebook and has a base of more than 34K followers on social media giant (Facebook). They also started to increase their footprint and presence on other popular platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. It has been in recognition of its incessant and novel efforts that they have been given the award.
It is pertinent to mention here that Mir Touseef, one of the founders of Pe’nd, has also been awarded by the university (along with his two colleagues Moe and Francesca) for his international academic seminar series, ‘decolonizing academia: realisation and beyond’ that engaged with academics and practitioners from around the world on issues of decolonisation of academic institutions and teaching practices.
Each year UEA recognizes and encourages excellent practice by academics, staff and students from across UEA and Norwich Research Park in engaging the public with research. The Engagement Awards celebrate the crucial work taking place across these institutions in reaching new audiences and encouraging meaningful dialogue, expanding the impact of their research to local, national, and international communities.
The online platform “Pe’nd Online” born in the UK in March 2020 was initiated and led by a group of early-career academics including Ajaz Bhat, Mohammad Tahir, Iffat Rashid, Nawal Nasir and Touseef Yousuf. Over time the rank n file of the group has extended beyond UK and includes Kashmiri professionals and students from around the world including a ground team working and researching from Kashmir. The entire work of the organization is voluntary and pro-bono.
Since its establishment in 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pe’nd Online has been working on raising awareness and educating people on issues pertaining to their society. In their weekly online programs, they manage an inclusive and gender-neutral panel of professionals, subject experts and commoners.
To date, Pe’nd Online has hosted more than 60-panel discussions broadcasted live on Facebook, on topics such as casteism, women development, Coronavirus, journalism, health and mental well-being, etc.
The platform has gained massive support and love from audiences in Kashmir and amongst the Kashmir Diaspora for their inclusive, unbiased, research-based, and uncontroversial conduct of panel series. The team also recently did a fundraiser to send oxygen concentrators to Kashmir in association with two Kashmiri charities Athwas UK and British Kashmiri Charitable Foundation (BKCF). Within a span of two weeks they successfully raised around eighteen lakh Indian Rupees through an open and transparent crowd funding platform ‘GoFundMe’.
