Workforce Deficit

A mid massive build-up of troops and constant rumours, a government order on August 2, ask ing tourists and Amarnath pilgrims to leave Kashmir immediately, triggered instant panic.

- Shams Irfan

Within no time locals lined outside grocery stores and petrol pumps to prepare for the worst. But nobody knew what that would be. There were just anticipations.

As tensions mounted and uncertainty overtook routine, hundreds of thousands of non-native labourers working in Kashmir began packing their bags to leave.

With no clarity from the government, these non-native labourers reached Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) in Srinagar, hoping to get a ride home. In the next two days around 60 thousand labourers left Srinagar alone. There were issues of transport that prevented hundreds to stay on the footpaths, forcing the host population to arrange for their dinner in a community kitchen, the transporters and the hospitality professionals set up on an emergency basis.

By Sunday evening almost fifty percent of non-native labourers in Kashmir had left, while rest struggled to find transport. In Khunmoh industrial area local trucks were pressed in service to ferry them out of Kashmir. All of a sudden, the rates soared.

“I had over fifty labourers working in factory and all of them have left,” said Younis, who runs a Plaster of Paris plant in Khunmoh. “They had closed the plant on their own which incurs huge loss at the peak of construction season.”