Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 28: CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has said that the payment of Rs 1000 per month as COVID-19 relief to registered construction workers, Shikarawalas/ Ponywalas/ Dandiwalas/ Palkiwalas/ Tourist guides is inadequate as double whammy of unemployment and rising food prices have crippled the poor section of the society in Jammu and Kashmir.
A large number of construction workers who are not yet registered with the Board and migrant labourers have been left out. Ever since August 2019, the incomes of people associated with the informal sector, consisting of low wage workers have dwindled sharply due to a major job loss wave. Some of the severely affected people include construction workers, auto and bus drivers, small shop owners and daily wage labourers. Hit hard by the lockdown, a majority of these informal workers have no savings and extra income to purchase food at higher prices.
People associated with the transport industry have been crippled as they had taken the vehicles on loan from the banks for which they have to pay installments and interest, though they have hardly got any working days in the last almost two years.
Similarly, the multiple lockdowns have made the survival of thousands of families who are dependent on the handicrafts sector difficult. People are eking out a tough existence in Kashmir. Thousands of businesses can’t pay their staff or keep them on their rolls.
Thousands of labourers from the region, who used to go to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and other places during the winter months to find labour work, couldn’t go last season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The people associated with the Tourism industry are finding it hard to earn livelihood since August 2019.With food prices rising, these people are now facing a dual crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the last three decades of uncertainty, the horticulture industry in Jammu and Kashmir which was considered as the backbone of the region’s economy was flourishing till a few years back. However, the decline started from November 2018, when the apple crop and trees received damages due to unseasonal snowfall.
Tarigami said the fruit industry in Kashmir faced economic consequences due to the lockdown imposed after the Centre abrogated Article 370. As if it was not enough, another unseasonal snowfall on November 7 in 2019 followed by successive Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 wreaked havoc on the fruit industry in Kashmir. The Kashmir growers need immediate help.
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