Workforce Crisis In Kashmir

Within hours after the government issued marching orders to the tourists and pilgrims ahead of August 5, tens of thousands of the non locals working in Kashmir left leaving behind unfinished works worth crores of rupees

- Shams Irfan

Amid massive build-up of troops and constant rumours, a government order on August 2, asking tourists and Amarnath pilgrims to leave Kashmir immediately, triggered panic.

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 workers in Kashmir began packing their bags to leave. These included the entire skilled and semi-skilled lot that was part of Kashmir’s growth story.

With no clarity from the government, this non-native workforce 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.”

Most of the factory owners in Khunmoh have paid hefty advances to contractors who bring workers for them from Bihar, Uttar Pardesh, Jarkhand, and other states. “We had paid lakhs of rupees at the start of the season for hundred labourers,” said another factory owner from Khunmoh. “With no communication, I don’t know if they will ever come back.”