ANANTNAG, Jammu & Kashmir: Young bedmaker Mohammad Najim spread out his wares — mattresses, quilts, and pillows — under a walnut tree in Dethu village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on a cheery June morning and waited for customers. With the temperature just around 27 degree Celsius, he could not help but wonder the far cry Kashmir weather was from Madhepura, his hometown in Bihar, which was then sizzling at 43 degree Celsius.
Najim moved to Kashmir this summer, and to Dethu, about 80 kilometres from Srinagar, in May. Bedmaking entailed being outdoors, which in the growing summer heat of the North Indian plains was getting too much for the body to bear. “My father fell severely ill in May and doctors attributed it to heat exposure. I am young and healthy, but the heat was too much even for me to bear. Imagine the plight of my 55-years-old father,” Najim, 21, told The Migration Story.
It is not just the bedmakers who are moving; construction workers, vendors and labourers who work outdoors are seeking cooler climes, primarily in the Himalayan region. But bedmakers constitute a significant part of new migrations to Kashmir as they are spurred not just by the weather, but demand for their products.
Skilled workers like Najim and his father turn old clothes into bedding on a simple machine which has a motor, a water tank, and a hopper — a conical container. They cut old clothes into strips and feed into the hopper. This entire set up is typically 5-7 metres long, is fuelled by diesel, and is erected outdoors to help workers handle the smoke it belches. The soft cotton-like material collected at the bottom of the hopper is put into fabric covers, flattened with heavy sticks and made into mattresses and quilts. All this happens outdoors; the reason why Najim and Maheruddin rather work out of Kashmir in summer.
Twenty-two-year old Imran Ahmed from Supaul is in Kashmir for the first time. He had accompanied Maheruddin in the hope of earning enough to repay a loan his father had availed to build a two-room house in the village. “Those who had been in Kashmir earlier told me that I could make Rs 1,500-2,000 a day. I was idle at home as it was too hot to work. To my surprise, I found many migrant bedmakers were here already. Now we struggle to earn Rs 300 a day,” said Ahmed.
As their earnings drop, traditional bedmakers are forced to explore other livelihood options. For instance, Miraj Khan, a bedmaker and co-worker of Maheruddin, now primarily works as an agricultural labourer. He makes mattresses only when agricultural work is unavailable. “There is little bedmaking work left in Kashmir. We rarely earn Rs 300 a day, whereas as an agricultural labourer, I can make Rs 600 daily, and the landowners provide lunch,” said the first-timer to Kashmir.
Local people observe the surge of migrant workers into the region. “From agricultural fields to salons, we find migrant workers in every sphere of life in Kashmir. Their presence has significantly risen in recent years,” observed Nadeem Rafiq, 45, a local resident.
Better weather might be a plus, but the precarious peace in the Valley remains a cause of anxiety for migrant workers. Left with little choice, most prefer to take a chance. “We know it is not very safe. Either we work in the heat or risk starving, or work here. We chose Kashmir,” said the bedmaker Ahmed.
Migrant workers have been particularly vulnerable in Kashmir lately. Non-local people — vendors, construction workers and drivers — have been soft targets of violence since 2019. The region has witnessed targeted attacks on civilians, primarily non-local people — 29 compared to 12 on security forces in 2022 — highlighted official data. Many migrant workers fled the Valley after the attacks.
