Over 35,000 labourers return to revive J&K’s moribund brick kilns

They are facing joblessness and a harsh spell of monsoon rain

July 21, 2020 11:46 pm | Updated 11:46 pm IST - Budgam

Scores of migrant labourers, facing joblessness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the harsh spell of monsoon rain in parts of north India, are returning to Jammu and Kashmir.

Over 35,000 brick kiln labourers have already come back to the Valley to revive the moribund brick manufacturing industry, according to the official figures.

Even as large parts of the Valley are under a stringent lockdown due to the rising graph of COVID-19 cases, Shalipora and Ompora areas in central Kashmir’s Budgam district are abuzz with migrant labourers for the first time in 11 months.

“Our family was facing financial hardship due to the pandemic. We have 10 family members to feed. The rain added to our miseries. We had been working in Kashmir kilns for many years. We decided to return to earn some money,” said Chuni Devi, a resident of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district.

Over 160 kilns, constituting around 60% of all such units, are dependent on migrant labourers in Budgam. Most labourers are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, among others.

Testing facility

“Around 2,000 labourers are allowed to travel on a daily basis into J&K through Lakhanpur,” an official said. The J&K State Road Transport Corporation is ferrying them.

The government has set up a special sample and testing facility in Anantnag, a gateway into the Valley, for migrant workers.

However, there are fears it may lead to another wave of infections. Official data suggest, 113 of 14,937 labourers tested COVID-19-positive at the Lower Munda in Qazigund between July 14 and July 20. “The results of 9,511 are awaited,” an official said.

The J&K Labour Department has launched a mission mode project for registration of labourers under the building and other construction workers welfare Act, 1996 in Jammu.

“With the motive to penetrate the benefits offered by the labour welfare board to the ground-level, genuine construction workers, the Labour Department initiated the mission mode registration drive to cover the leftover construction workers,” an official said.

These labour cards are essential for applying for jobs, acquiring property and seeking rights of children in education in J&K. According to the new J&K Domicile Act, verified labour cards and employer certificates are essential to seek domicile certificates after the stipulated years.

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