Job loss, rising food prices cripple J&K’s poor: Tarigami

CPI (M) leader Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami Friday said that the payment of Rs 1000 per month as COVID-19 relief to registered construction workers, shikarawalas, ponywalas, dandiwalas, palkiwalas, and tourist guides was inadequate as double whammy of unemployment and rising food prices had crippled the poor section of the society in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a statement issued here, he said that a large number of construction workers who were not yet registered with the board and migrant labourers had been left out.

“Ever since August 2019, the incomes of people associated with the informal sector consisting of low-wage workers had dwindled sharply due to a major job loss wave,” Tarigami said. ‘Some of the severely-affected people include construction workers, auto and bus drivers, small shop owners and daily wage labourers.”

He said that hit hard by the lockdown, a majority of these informal workers had no savings and extra income to purchase food at higher prices.

Tarigami said that people associated with the transport industry had been crippled as they had taken the vehicles on loan from the banks for which they had to pay installments and interest, though they had hardly got any working days in the last almost two years.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Tarigami said that the people associated with the tourism industry were 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,” he said.