Meet Hifza Khan, kid reporter from Kashmir whose video on bad roads went viral

5-year-old Hifza Khan`s video reporting about the bad condition of her village road went viral on social media.

Kashmir: The kid ‘reporter’ from Kashmir Hifza Khan who reported about the bad condition of her village has attracted authorities' attention in days which the elders failed to do in years. 

A 5-year-old nursery standard student Hifza Khan’s video reporting about the bad condition of her village became a social media sensation. Thousands are complimenting her for passionate coverage.

Dressed in a red jacket, the girl in the viral video is seen standing on a muddy road with a small lapel mic in her hand, to highlight the plight of roads near her home. She says she can’t go to tuitions and guests cannot come to her place because of the bad roads. Her camera person was her mother, who was not aware at that time that this video of her daughter is going to bring change for their village Mazhama’s railway colony. 

Zee News met Hifza at her home and asked her what was in her mind and how she did she report so confidently. She boldly replied ‘give me this mic I will show’. Taking the Zee News mic, in the same way she reported about the bad condition of the road. 

Hifza said, “Our road is in very bad condition so I thought that I should make a video. I made the video because guests cannot come here, if the road will be constructed, I can go to tuition and school. My video will benefit us and I appeal to the government to construct our road.” 

Hiza reported in a professional manner and her innocent words made that video attractive and popular. 

Her mother shared it in the family WhatsApp group, and her cousins posted it on social media and within one hour the video went crazy viral on social media. People were seen retweeting as they loved this innocent reporter. The video has been shared by many Twitter users and has been viewed more than one lakh times. 

Some tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and LG of Jammu Kashmir on this video. Hifza’s grandfather said we have been approaching authorities for a decade, but no one listened to us. Villagers said they had gone to the then chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, R&B department authorities but nobody took them seriously. But now they hope this little angel’s innocent voice will solve their years-long pending problems. Villagers said, “It’s not only road, but we also have the problem of electricity. Our hi-tension electric wires are hanging on trees and we are not given electric poles, we don’t have proper water supply, as it rains or snows our vehicles get stuck for weeks in our houses.”

Ikqan Bhat, a local resident said, “You can yourself see the road is in very bad shape and the administration is not paying any heed. These small kids can understand how many problems we face but the administration does not take any step.”

The ground level administration of valley district development council member of the Narbal area who oversees this area's development acknowledged the problem and said he has taken up the matter with concerned authorities and soon work will start.

Riyaz Ahmad district development, counsellor Narbal, said, “If we talk of road, it’s a new colony there was no road earlier for last 5 years ago. We have approached executive engineer Tangmarg and have made its planning. Hope this year road will be constructed.”

This is not the first time that a child from Kashmir has appealed to authorities through video messages.

Last year, a kid named Mahiru Irfan from Srinagar’s Alochi Bagh addressed the PM through a video message seeking to cut the duration of online classes leading to an intervention by the PM. The education department was directed by LG of Jammu Kashmir to cut the duration of online classes. This time the villagers also believe that some higher authority will intervene, and their demands will get fulfilled.