In 2014, during the floods in Kashmir, television scenes showed hundreds of migrant workers trekking along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, which was closed to traffic, to Ramban, 150 km away. This escape through a treacherous highway in difficult mountainous terrain was forced by a natural disaster. Seven years later, migrant workers in states like Bihar are returning to their native places again—and this time it is not the wrath of nature that is driving them out of the Valley. It is the fear of being killed by terrorists. A fear inspired by a series of targeted killings over the past few weeks.
When 55-year-old Virendra Paswan from Bihar was murdered in Srinagar on October 5, Pankaj Paswan, 45, of the state’s Banka district, thought it was a sporadic incident. But when two more attacks took place on October 16 and 17, in which four migrants, including three from Bihar, were killed, Pankaj was shaken from inside. He left Kashmir on 18 October, reaching Jammu the next day to catch a train to his home state. They found platforms full of migrant Biharis. “They were all scared and just wanted to go home,” he says. “The ticket counter was so crowded that the railway staff asked us to board the train even without a ticket. Inside the general compartment, there were seven passengers on each lower berth, with seven more on each upper berth. There was no space on the floor either. Somehow I was able to travel till Bhagalpur Junction and then reached my village. “
Read also: Deras of Punjab: Powerful Symbols of Dalit Claim
Pankaj was selling golgappas For more than two decades in Kashmir, he lived in Srinagar’s Alamgari market, barely three kilometers from the Idgah market where the October 16 attack took place. “Most people do not want to go to Kashmir to work or do any business as it is a volatile region. We saw this as an opportunity to sell and earn more. I used to earn Rs 1,000-1,200 a day selling golgappas,” says Pankaj, who does not forget to appreciate the hospitality of Kashmiris. “The locals helped us with ration for four months during last year’s lockdown.”
Deprived
The family of King Rishidev, who wanted to build this house but was killed in Kashmir
Photo by Shah Faesal
Back in Banka, Pankaj started selling fish, but the income is low. “I buy fish from Bhagalpur city and sell it in the local market, earning hardly Rs 400 a day,” he says. So will he go back to Kashmir? “With what I earn in Banka, it is difficult to manage and pay for the education of my four children. But my wife does not want me to leave Bihar again. I do not know what to do.”
Read also: Shock and grief: The killing of migrant workers leaves Kashmir without its cheap workforce
The reason for Pankaj’s exit from Kashmir was the murder of 28-year-old Arvind Kumar Sah. Also from Banka, Arvind was murdered on 16 October while selling golgappas at Idgah market in Srinagar – which he had been doing for 15 years. “His income was helping us run the family. Now I don’t know how we will survive,” says his elder brother, 35-year-old Dablu Kumar Sah. Dablu was also selling golgappas from 1999 till he left the valley in 2019. “When the central government abrogated Article 370, I felt that the situation would get worse in the days to come. That’s why I left Kashmir forever,” he says.
Unemployed for several months in Banka, Dablu later started a small eatery in Sahebganj (Jharkhand), about 120 km away. “I earn only Rs 300-400 a day. I have two daughters and a son. Everyone is reading. I have very little land. When my daughters are to get married, I don’t know how I will arrange the money,” he says.
Read also: How green was the valley: Loss of livelihood of Bihari workers migrating from Kashmir
The latest in a series of attacks, on 17 October, claimed the lives of two migrants from Bihar. One of them was 18-year-old Raja Rishidev of Bossi village in Araria district. The king wanted to build a pucca house on his small plot of land in the village. For this he had bought bricks, sand and iron rods. He had gone to Pampore in Pulwama four months ago to work on construction sites so that he could earn enough to build that house. “He wanted to build a house as soon as possible so that he could get married,” says his uncle Vidyanand Rishidev.
Belonging to the most economically and socially marginalized Mahadalit community, the king did not own any agricultural land. Since farm work in the village is available only during the sowing and harvesting seasons, and wages are very low – “just Rs 200 a day,” says Vidyanand – a contractor hired Raja to work on construction sites in Kashmir. agreed to. He was told that he could earn up to Rs 12,000 a month. “I knew Kashmir was a disturbed area, so I warned him. But the offer seemed tempting and he left for the valley,” says Vidyanand.
full round
20-year-old Manish Kumar returned to his village in Bihar’s Araria district after the murder of Raja Rishidev
Photo by Shah Faesal
After Raja’s murder, 20-year-old Manish Kumar of Bangama panchayat of Araria district left Kashmir the very next day. He took a bus from Pampore to Jammu, where he boarded another bus. On the third day he reached Araria. “I came back after spending Rs 4,000. More than 50 people of my village have returned with me. We were scared after the attacks. My family was very worried and insisted that I should leave Kashmir,” says Manish.
Like Raja, Manish was also working on construction sites in the valley. Back in his village, he has yet to find any work, but has no plans to return to Kashmir. “I can go to Delhi or Mumbai, but not Kashmir. There is no guarantee of life there,” he says.
Vikas Paswan, 21, a resident of Bade Hasanpur village in Bhagalpur district, worked as a carpenter in Kashmir, where his father had been selling golgappas for 20 years. Both father and son fled the valley soon after the first attack on 5 October. “In Bihar only Rs 200-250 is paid as daily wage. How will my family survive on such a low salary? That’s why I went to Kashmir. There I used to get Rs 600-700 a day.
For years Bihar has been supplying cheap labor across the country due to minimal employment opportunities in the state. According to NITI Aayog’s latest Index for Sustainable Development Goals, 33.74 percent of the state’s population is below the poverty line. A report by the International Institute of Population Sciences states that migration affects about 50 percent of the total households. According to the 2011 census, around 9.3 million people migrated from Bihar to other states in the last 10 years. And migrants from Bihar made up a major part of those who walked hundreds of kilometers to reach their native villages after the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the Covid pandemic last year.
Read also: Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Grief turns to anger as families of dead demand justice
“Bihari workers are leaving for other states out of desperation, not by choice,” says DM Diwakar, Professor and Head, Department of Economics and former Director, AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna. “There are no industries. Agricultural activities are only four months a year, but mechanization is increasing, leaving little scope for manual work.” Between 2016-17 and 2019-20, around 665 migrant Biharis were killed in various incidents and disasters in other states.In October 2018, a large number of Bihari activists fled Gujarat following hate crimes that led to the rape of a newborn girl. In November 2008, Bihari workers had to leave Mumbai after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena attacks. And when the official death toll during the recent floods in Uttarakhand was pegged at 52, it included 10 workers from Bihar. However, such risks far outweigh the economic forces driving the natives of Bihar out of the state.
(It appeared in the print edition as “A Terrified Return to Desperate”)
—Edited by Satyadeep
.