Rashmi Singh - Migrant Workers in the Kashmir Valley
This paper was researched and written by Rashmi Singh as part of AMAN's ongoing research on informal labourers. The paper was presented at the Ninth International Conference of the Association for Indian Labour Historians in Delhi. AMAN has just posted it on its website http://www.amanpanchayat.org/
In 2007, following the brutal rape and murder of a fourteen year old
school girl, Tabinda Gani, spontaneous protests erupted in Langate demanding
justice. Tabinda's body
had grave marks of struggle and the horrifying method with which the crime was
committed led to a lot of anger and demand for death sentence for the
perpetrators. The case however is still dragging on and has been
largely forgotten by the media. Recently in November Syed Ali Shah Geelani
reminded the public how the confusion deliberately created by police has kept
the judgement pending. The state government however, [with its reputation for
delaying speedy trial of rape cases in Kashmir unsoiled], has not missed the opportunity to rename the state award
for bravery of children as 'Tabinda Gani State
The rape was allegedly
committed by two Kashmiri men from Langate, one carpenter from Uttar Pradesh
and a fourth, a cobbler from Rajasthan. The immediate consequence of the
protest was the involvement of some Kashmiri leaders including Geelani who
asked outside workers to leave the state. The Hizbul-Mujahideen also gave a
week's time for workers to leave
Kashmir . These statements were retracted a day later, when
public criticism followed, with organizations giving a clarification that only 'criminal
elements' were
asked to exit. The consequence of this was that thousands of migrant workers
left the valley immediately out of fear. It became a political controversy as
Hindutva parties quickly scooped up the issue to show the 'communal' nature of the Kashmiri struggle. The Shiv
Sena [which brutally drove away Bihari migrants the next year with MNS in
Maharashtra] equated it with the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990's. The VHP state unit demanded the persecution of Syed Ali
Geelani under the National Security Act [NSA] for asking non-Kashmiris to leave
Kashmir.
BJP member Shahnawaz Hussain turned up in Srinagar Kashmir to be an 'inalienable' part of India
While the reaction of
right-wing parties in India Bihar was involved in the crime, many columns blamed the
immorality on the slow permeance of 'bihari culture' in Kashmir . Most of these opinions dubbed this disturbance as
unfortunate in a society guided otherwise by religious and moral principles. The immorality
of the migrant workers has been in some instances stretched and conflated
easily with the ills that beget modernity and more seriously as a conspiracy to
introduce Indian population in Kashmir .
Qazi Sajad Delnavi, writing in Greater Kashmir questioned
the logic of some of these statements, asking how the presence of a few lakh
labourers could threaten Kashmiri culture at large. He also pointed out how the
news - otherwise relegated to the inner pages of local newspapers, jumped to headlines
as soon as non-local workers were implicated, while the two local workers
involved were largely unscathed in the barrage of comments that followed.
Arguing within the columns of the same newspaper, Inayat Choudhry argued that
despite most of the migrant workforce being poor Muslim workers, it has been
dubbed as an intrigue of Hindus out to destroy Kashmir‟s economy.
Post 2007 migrant workers are back in Kashmir
in larger numbers. Migrant workers have been a close part of Kashmiri workforce
for over two decades now. Though there are no statistics on total numbers,
current estimates presume that about 5 lakh outside workers come to work in the
Valley seasonally every year. They have been working in paddy fields,
construction, brick kilns, as domestic help and in various other quarters
including petty trade and sales. Most of them are from U.P., Bihar ,
Bengal and other north Indian states and work seasonally
through the summer returning to their native
places once the winter sets in. According to some sources they have been in Kashmir since late 70‟s.
This research has been conducted with the help of numerous interviews during
last autumn with migrant workers working in construction industry, brick kilns
and as hawkers in and around Srinagar
It can
be said that more than half of Srinagar's workforce now consists of migrant workers from other
states. Kashmir has been called in some instances, a 'second Gulf' for its high wages, good climatic conditions and work
opportunities. Actual wages in construction industry for instance are much
higher than those notified by the state government; masons in Kashmir earn around Rs. 400 per day, which is almost double of what they earn
in other cities like Delhi Bihar has also changed the nature of construction itself in
the Valley, with now concrete and POP being used more than earlier forms of
wood and stone construction, changing the architectural landscape completely.
Locals prefer migrant workers since they are seen as more pliant, more
productive and skilled than Kashmiri workers. Interviews with migrant workers
reveal a different picture than expressed in the newspaper comments mentioned
above. Most workers have been coming for many years and feel comfortable owing
to friendliness of employers and Kashmiri people. They feel more trusted, they
are provided with better accommodation and have had almost no reported
outwardly tension with the Kashmiri neighbourhoods. All the interviewees
reported no communal tension either. They are also not 'Indian-ised' by the local people as easily as by some commentators,
though most of them are quick to claim the nationality themselves...
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