HELD SRINAGAR: Every spring, mason Mohammad Ghulam Sarwar boards a train to Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), seeking higher wages despite the risk of being targeted by fighters in the disputed Himalayan region.
Sarwar, 25, is one of an estimated half a million migrant workers who stream into the Himalayan region each year, forming the backbone of an economy increasingly reliant on labour from some of India’s poorest states.
The dependence has endured despite decades of insurgency and a series of militant attacks that have made migrant workers vulnerable targets. Since 2019, at least 24 migrant workers have been killed in militant attacks across the territory, according to local media reports.
More than 1500 people were killed in the same period, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 219 of them civilians.The latest attack last month saw gunmen shoot dead two brick kiln workers from the central state of Chhattisgarh.
But for workers like Sarwar, the rewards outweigh the risks.“Kashmir is real paradise. I will keep coming every year for as long as I have the strength to work,” Sarwar, from the eastern state of Bihar, told AFP.
While millions of Indians seek jobs in the Gulf, some workers say Kashmir offers nearly comparable earnings without the costs and complications of overseas migration.Sarwar earns 1,200 rupees ($12) a day in Kashmir, compared with about 700 rupees in Bihar for the same work, if he could find any at all.
The Muslim-majority region, battling some of India’s highest unemployment rates, has become increasingly dependent on outsiders to perform jobs that many locals consider menial, including domestic work, agriculture and construction.
Local businesses say they struggle to find workers willing or able to take up many jobs.“Outside the handicrafts sector there is not nearly enough local skilled labour available in Kashmir,” said Mohammad Ashraf Mir of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“We see a rising dependence on migrant workers, tending towards absolute dependence.”Each morning, groups of labourers gather at prominent squares in the main city of Srinagar, waiting to be hired.
Most stay for about eight months before departing ahead of valley’s harsh winter, when construction slows and agricultural activity dwindles.Sarwar said he saw a barber from his home state shot dead by suspected rebels some years ago.
While he was saddened by the incident, it failed to deter him. “Life and death are in the hands of God. If I remain fearful, I will have nothing. But if I overcome, I will have everything,” he said.
Sarwar shares a building in Srinagar with around 200 other labourers. Some 7-10 workers squeeze into tiny rooms, sleeping and cooking in the same cramped space while paying little more than five dollars a month each.
Paramilitary troops, armoured vehicles and police special operations units patrol streets. CCTV cameras monitor the compound around the clock.“They have been soft targets for the fighters in the past,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity. “But security arrangements for them have become robust over time.”A labourer from West Bengal said many Hindu workers adopt Muslim-sounding names while in Kashmir, fearing that displaying their religion could make them targets.
