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Every spring, mason Mohammad Ghulam Sarwar takes 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 roughly half a million migrant workers who flow into the Himalayan region each year, forming the backbone of an economy that leans increasingly on labor from some of India’s poorest states.
The reliance has persisted despite decades of insurgency and a series of militant attacks that have made migrant workers vulnerable targets.
Since 2019, at least 24 migrant workers have been killed in militant attacks across the territory, according to local media reports.
More than 1500 people were killed in the same period, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 219 of them civilians.
The most recent attack, last month, saw gunmen shoot dead two brick kiln workers from the central state of Chhattisgarh. But for workers like Sarwar, the payoff outweighs the danger.
"Kashmir is real paradise. I will keep coming every year for as long as I have the strength to work," Sarwar, from the eastern state of Bihar, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
While millions of Indians seek work in the Gulf, some workers say Kashmir offers nearly comparable pay without the expense and hassle of migrating overseas. Sarwar earns 1,200 rupees ($12) a day in Kashmir, compared with about 700 rupees in Bihar for the same work, if he can find work at all.
The Muslim-majority region, grappling with some of India's highest unemployment rates, has grown increasingly reliant on outsiders to fill jobs many locals view as menial, including domestic work, agriculture and construction.
Local business owners say they struggle to find workers willing or able to take up many jobs. "Outside the handicrafts sector there is not nearly enough local skilled labour available in Kashmir," said Mohammad Ashraf Mir of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "We see a rising dependence on migrant workers, tending towards absolute dependence."
Sarwar lives in a Srinagar building alongside around 200 other laborers.
Some seven to 10 workers squeeze into tiny rooms, sleeping and cooking in the same cramped space while paying little more than $5 a month each.
Security is highly visible outside. Paramilitary troops, armoured vehicles and police special operations units patrol streets.
CCTV cameras monitor the compound around the clock.
"They have been soft targets for the terrorists in the past," a senior security official said on condition of anonymity. "But security arrangements for them have become robust over time."
"I face no troubles here," said Mohammad Iqbal, a 53-year-old painter from Uttar Pradesh state who has worked in Kashmir since before the insurgency began and is now joined by his son. "It feels peaceful."
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