Migrant workforce gives a push to Kashmir’s economy
By: Raihana Maqbool
Srinagar: Chandan Goswami came to Kashmir to find work when he was a teenager.
Goswami, who is thirty-eight now has been living and working in Kashmir as a migrant worker for two decades. He sells snacks on a busy street in Srinagar’s Jahangir Chowk locality, the main city in Jammu and Kashmir, more than 300 miles away from his home.
Goswami belongs to a small village in Uttarakhand and visits his home only in the winter season as he has decent earnings in Kashmir to support his family of eight-four children, wife, and parents back home. He says people like him struggle to find work outside as the human resource is in abundance with little work. He says he could not have made a decent living in other states.
“I came to Kashmir as a child when the migrant population was not much and was accompanied by my uncle, but now lots of people from my village also want to come here for work because here you make more money than other places in India. The weather is moderate which makes it comfortable for us to work,” Goswami says.
Goswami, who is thirty-eight now has been living and working in Kashmir as a migrant worker for two decades. He sells snacks on a busy street in Srinagar’s Jahangir Chowk locality.
Over the past three decades, thousands of migrant workers both skilled and unskilled flocked to Kashmir in droves from other states of the country making it one of the states in India whose economy is now heavily dependent on the non-local workforce.
Raj Kumar, 23, another migrant worker from Bihar who has been switching work from construction worker to coconut seller says he prefers to live in Kashmir throughout the year even in the harsh months of winter when most of the workers leave for their home-states.
“I work as a construction worker in summers and sell coconut during winters. I have been doing this for the last five years and I am earning enough to send money to my family in Bihar. Kashmir is a nice place and people are kind,” Kumar says. “I hardly visit home.”
Kumar came to Kashmir five years back through an agent and says that his family is dependent on him financially.
“I am not skilled enough to work in the other sectors, but I still manage to earn. I was unsure initially but I am happy to be able to earn enough to feed my family,” Kumar says.
Raj Kumar, 23, another migrant worker from Bihar who has been switching work from construction worker to coconut seller says he prefers to live in Kashmir throughout the year even in the harsh months of winter when most of the workers leave for their home-states
The boom in inter-state migration
From working in the construction sector, agriculture, restaurants, brick kiln workers, barbers, and vendors selling cheap food items, the migrant workers are also now exploring the fields that were exclusive to the locals of Kashmir making exclusive like traditional wooden work in Kashmir homes known as khatamband or making embroidery on garments. The migrant workers are learning special skills in the region. The workers have become an integral part of Kashmir’s economy as many people in Kashmir prefer to hire them for work.
Experts say that the past two decades have seen a boom in the migration of laborers from various parts of India, especially from the state of Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh due to the rising demand in Kashmir. Though there is no compiled data by the administration of the Jammu and Kashmir region, industry and trade bodies put their figure of migrant workers visiting Kashmir each year between two and four lakhs. But research scholars studying migrant patterns, and the 2011 Census data, say their actual numbers could be over 11 lakhs in Kashmir Valley.
The Census data of the year 2001 reported 86768 in-migrants in the state from other states and as per the 2011 census, there were 2,83,0930 in Kashmir showing a steep increase in the number of non-local workforce in Kashmir.
The National Commission on Rural Labour in India estimates more than 10 million circular migrants in the rural areas alone. These include an estimated 4.5 million interstate migrants and 6 million intra-state migrants.
Manisha Kumari, 38, who works at a brick kiln in the Budgam area of Kashmir says that she preferred to work in Kashmir than other states of India. He has his own reasons.
“I along with my husband work in the brick-kilns in Budgam and before coming to Kashmir we have worked in some other parts of India but in Kashmir we found a good environment to work. We also have government schools nearby where we send our children,” Kumari says. “We work and our children go to school, what else do we want.”
Kumari belongs to the state of West Bengal and came to Kashmir six years back with her husband and a child.
“Many women from my state work in the brick kilns here for many years now and I had the skills to fit myself here and earn money. It is not easy to leave the home but poverty forced us and we finally found a place that’s better to work,” Kumari says. “The summer here is moderate and working in the summer season is easy as compared to other states where it is very hot.”
Why are migrant workers preferred?
Farooq Ahmad, a local contractor belonging to north Kashmir’s Baramulla prefers to hire migrant workers at his construction sites. The reasons they work much harder and are quick to complete the work on time.
“I hire them for all kinds of work which includes labor as well as carpentry. They are available for work and work harder than local laborers here. They don’t take unnecessary breaks or run early to home,” Ahmad says.
“They are in a way shaping the economy here and most of the time seventy percent of laborers who work with me are migrants from states of Bihar and Bengal.”
Ahmad is not alone, Nazir Ahmad Wani, a contractor, who undertakes government projects like building roads echoes similar views.
“If you see the major work being done like construction of drainage, roads, and bridges, it cannot get completed without migrant workers. These all constructions are dependent on them. In winters, the development work in Kashmir goes at a slow pace because most of these workers leave for home, you can imagine how much they contribute,” Wani explained.
Locals in Kashmir say that the migrants do all kinds of minimal work and are easily available.
Saleem Bhat, a shopkeeper from the Nowhatta area of Srinagar says that the migrant workers
“They do all kinds of jobs whether it’s working in fields or at the construction site and it is difficult to get a local Kashmiri worker to do the minimal jobs. For my business, I need help for various purposes and I give the work to any of the migrant workers,” Bhat says. “Even if I have some construction work, I know when and where to find a migrant worker.”
A research study conducted by Aijaz Ahmad Tarray who teaches at the Central University
of Gujarat, on migrant workers in Kashmir says that most of the migrant workers in Kashmir from other states of India work in informal employment.
According to the research, 17 percent of migrants were absorbed in the agriculture and horticulture industries, owing to the rural character of the Valley. “These workers usually work inside the industrial establishments in the construction of units made of bricks, cement blocks, and industrial sheds. Most of them are employed in the slab works, which is considered a tough and high-risk job in Kashmir: local workers often avoid such work,” the study quotes.
Source: Research paper by Aijaz Ahmad Tarrey on Migration in Kashmir.
The study further reads that “12 percent of the migrants were involved in such industries, engaged in carpet making, handloom weaving, etc. A number of workers also work in the unorganized industry as street hawkers.”
The migrant workers come to Kashmir through agents, relatives or friends’ recommendations. One has over thirty to forty workers working under him.
As per the 2011 Census, migrant workers work in a number of industries and businesses in the valley with the highest proportion in agriculture and horticulture, followed by cementing works.
Source: A research study done by Aijaz Ahmad Tarray on migration in Kashmir.
About 59 percent of workers are recruited through contractors, employers, and agents with contractors while 17 percent were self-employed.
As per estimates, migrant laborers make up 80% of the region’s construction workforce. These migrants generally come to the state in February and stay till October barring some who continue to remain in Kashmir during winters to earn more.
During the pandemic lockdown of 2020 and 2021, when migrant workers from other parts of India traveled back home on foot with family and children, many of the migrant workers continued to live and work in Kashmir. They found work and food during the toughest lockdown in the country.
Sheikh Ashiq, president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries agrees that the migrant workers make an integral part of Kashmir’s economy.
“Unless and until we enhance the skills of local people in Kashmir, we need to depend on migrant workers. It’s the demand and requirement and many skills we need are not available locally. These skills workers get their financial independence anywhere. We need skills in Kashmir and these migrant laborers have become an integral part of Kashmir’s economy now.” Ashiq says.
Ashiq says that the migrant workers are a part of the economy in Kashmir and argues the various reasons for the migrant workers to choose Kashmir as a workplace.
“The reason why migrants workers come to Kashmir is local people here lack the skills required for various jobs and migrant workers have all those skills required and they do all kinds of work here,” Ashiq says. “If the local people here were trained for these skills, they would be preferred for the work that migrants are doing.”
This article was produced as part of DW Akademie’s Media Fellowship on Displacement and Migration.
Kashmir Images is an English language daily newspaper published from Srinagar (J&K), India. The newspaper is one of the largest circulated English dailies of Kashmir and its hard copies reach every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley besides Jammu and Ladakh region.
