SAND STORM

At the peak of internet blockade, UT administration e-auctioned around 100 sand blocks along Jhelum river and some of its tributaries. Most of these blocks were bagged by non-locals leaving thousands of families surviving on sand digging for generations without livelihood. It has also started hitting the real estate sector hard, reports Saima Bhat

- Saima Bhat

Since last two years Suhaib Ashiq, 18, starts his day early than his other classmates so that he can give enough time to his studies. As his friends leave their homes to refresh themselves in evenings, he changes his clothes and gets ready to reach his workplace on the banks of river Jhelum.

A resident of Padhshahibagh in Srinagar, where primary occupation is sand extraction, Suhaib is preparing for medical entrance these days. Unlike his classmates he cannot afford to sit at his home after 5’O clock in the evening. He is the lone bread earner of his family of four members: parents and a sister, after his father met an accident in 2017 that left him bedridden.

“I was then a class 10th student and my labourer father became bed-ridden. A tipper ran over his leg. The burden of running the family and continuing my and sister’s schooling became my responsibility,” Suhaib says. Both siblings were studying in a local private school.

Left with no option he decided to earn his livelihood from river like most of his neighbours did but he wished to continue his studies as well. He helps in loading the tippers with sand. His work starts at 5 pm, after his school, and then continues till midnight. Every truckload fetch es him Rs 400 which makes him earn at least Rs 7000 a month.

“I was working when I came to know that I have scored 75 percent in my class 10th examination and I was again working when my 12th class results were announced. I scored 64 percent which is lesser than what I had expected but I had no resources to go for private tuitions,” says Suhaib, who appears weaker than his classmates. But he is now uncertain about his studies as the government has come up with a notice that bans the extraction of sand from Jhelum and its tributaries by the locals, who traditionally depend on the vocation for their livelihood.