Scared, but not leaving Kashmir as people are kind: Migrant Workers
Srinagar/Patna: Sanjay Kumar like many migrant labourers from Bihar and other places working in Kashmir are scared following the killing of five non-locals by militants this month, but say they will go nowhere as wages are high and residents are kind.
Labourers from several parts of the country come to the Valley every year in early March for skilled and unskilled jobs such as masonry, carpentry, welding and farming, and go back home before the onset of winter in November.
“We are scared but we are not going back to Bihar, at least not yet. We go back in the first week of November every year and that is how it will be this time too,” Shankar Narayan, a 45-year-old labourer from Bihar, said.
Kumar, who like Narayan also hails from Bihar, said he will go back to his native place according to schedule in the first week of November.
Narayan has been coming to Kashmir every March for the past 15 years and works here till the first week of November before returning home.
He said he has not faced any problem during his stay in Kashmir.
“People have been helpful. When there was complete shutdown for five months in 2016, we were not harmed even though locals suffered a lot,” he said.
Kumar and Narayan said they would not have come here if they could have got similar wages anywhere else.
“We would not have come here in the first place but wages back home are not even half of what we get here. Also, people are very kind and generous,” Kumar said.
The 30-year-old had gone to Malaysia in 2017 but returned to the Valley where he found himself more “respected”.
“I was in Kuala Lumpur for two years but it was a bad decision. I paid a hefty sum to get a visa and work permit. In the end, I just managed to get back home without incurring a debt, “he said.
Kumar claimed that workers in construction and services in foreign countries are looked down upon.
Riyaz Ahmad, a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh, has brought his entire family — wife and three kids — to Kashmir.
“Life here is better than back home. Me and my wife get work regularly,” Ahmad said.
The 36-year-old is hoping to save enough to buy his own house in a few years.
“I work as a carpenter and my wife is a house help. The earnings and savings are enough… I should be able to buy my own house in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) in two to three years,” Ahmad said.
Is he scared following the killings?
“Darr to lagta hai par bhook say zyada darr lagta hai (I am scared but i fear hunger more than death),” he said as he pointed to his kids adding “back home we won’t be able to find two square meals”.
In the latest of the five killings, two non-locals were shot dead by militants in Srinagar and Pulwama districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.
They were Arvind Kumar Sah from Bihar and Saghir Ahmad from Srinagar.
Meanwhile, a mix of grief and terror has engulfed this nondescript village in central Bihar which has lost one of its residents, a 30-year-old street vendor, to militants’ bullets.
The wails of Sunaina Devi pierced the shocked silence that suffused the Monday morning air at the village in Banka district, nearly 300 km from state capital Patna, as the bullet-riddled body of her son Arvind Kumar Sah arrived, two days after he was gunned down near Srinagar.
Sunaina Devi had been making plans for getting Arvind, the youngest of her five sons, married. She had called him up on the fateful day a few hours before he was killed.
“Arvind had been working hard, selling golgappas and saving money, with the dream of a better future. He hung up telling his mother that he was getting late for work and promised to call back in the evening. The evening never came,” recalls Devendra Sah, the bereaved father, making futile attempts to look composed before bursting into tears.
The year has been a double whammy for the family, which also lost Babloo, an elder sibling of Arvind, to COVID 19 a few months ago.
“All our hopes are dashed. The state government has announced a solatium of Rs two lakh. We request that they realise the gravity of our predicament and the amount be raised to Rs 50 lakh, and a government job be provided to one of our sons so he may take care of the family while living here,” he said.
“We cannot allow any member of our family, henceforth, to risk his life in a far-off dangerous place. I have been told that my son was shot at point blank range after the attackers checked his identity, ascertaining that he was an outsider. I am told that an Indo-Pak cricket match will be played. It should be called off,” he added.
Many residents of the village are still eking out a living in Jammu and Kashmir and there are apprehensions about their well-being in the aftermath of terrorists targeting outsiders and non-Muslims.
“Our village comprises nearly 300 households. Most of these have at least one member or more in Jammu and Kashmir. We are very, very scared for them. Why does the government fool us with claims of peace having returned to the valley when it is incapable of providing security?” asks Om Prakash Yadav, a villager, angrily.
Local BJP MLA Ram Narayan Mandal, who visited Lakhpura Parghari to console the bereaved family, however, asserted the apprehensions of the villagers will be squarely addressed.
“My appeal is that they retain their faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Those responsible for the dastardly act will get exemplary punishment, and rehabilitation of the bereaved families (of Bihari migrants killed by militants in Kashmir) will get top priority,” he said.
Press Trust of India
