Migrant workers flock to Indian Kashmir despite militant threats
At least 24 migrant workers have been killed since 2019, but higher wages and local labor shortages keep drawing them back.
- Half a million migrant workers stream into Kashmir annually despite persistent militant attacks, forming the backbone of the Himalayan region's economy.
- Mohammad Ashraf Mir of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the region lacks local skilled labor, creating rising dependence on outsiders for construction, agriculture, and domestic work.
- Sarwar, a 25-year-old laborer from Bihar, earns 1,200 rupees daily in Kashmir versus 700 rupees at home, while sharing cramped Srinagar housing for little more than five dollars monthly.
- Since 2019, at least 24 migrant workers have been killed in militant attacks; gunmen shot dead two workers from Chhattisgarh last month, though painter Mohammad Iqbal said "I face no troubles here."
- An insurgency against Indian rule has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989, with rebel groups alleging they target migrants to avenge police harassment; yet workers like Shahid Sofi persist despite fear.
11 Articles
11 Articles
South China Morning Post
PressNewsAgencyHigh pay, high peril: migrant workers brave threats in Indian Kashmir
Every spring, mason Mohammad Ghulam Sarwar boards a train to Indian Kashmir, seeking higher wages despite the risk of being targeted by militants 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 insurg…
Every year, hundreds of thousands of workers from all over India join Kashmir's yards and fields, attracted by wages... The Kashmir article, the country where they come to risk their lives to earn three times more, appeared first on Le Singulier.
Originally from the state of Bihar (north-east), Mohammad Ghulam Sarwar, 25, has been travelling by train for nearly 10 years, and would not give up on it for anything in the world."Kashmir is a real paradise," says this mason, "I will continue to come there as long as...
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