What Lies Beyond Transit Accommodations For Migrant Kashmiri Pandits?

Vinya Pandita (name changed) says government accommodations for Kashmiri Pandits have changed for the better. When he was appointed as a teacher in 2010 under the Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package, he was sharing his room with several other employees and the security arrangements were not as tight as they are at present. Later, when he was transferred, he was put up in a prefab shed accommodation at Vesu camp in South Kashmir. He was facing a tough situation as water was not available and the room was to be shared with other employees. In contrast to that, now, migrant employees are given solo accommodation. 

The government in Kashmir has accelerated its work on providing alternative accommodation to migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees working in the Valley after recent targeted attacks on Kashmiri migrant employees. 

In the last week of April, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated the newly constructed 576 residential accommodations for Prime Minister package employees at Baramulla, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Shopian districts. 

“This inauguration is a testimony to our commitment to creating adequate facilities for a future of prosperity and dignity of Employees,” Sinha says. He says the government is sensitive to the issues of the Kashmiri migrant families. “We understand their pain and working with the right intent to complete the construction of residential accommodations on priority,” Sinha says. 

He says 2000 more flats will be completed by December 2023. 

In December 2022, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha the government has approved the construction of 6,000 transit accommodations for Kashmiri migrant employees engaged or to be engaged in different departments of the government of J&K in the valley. 

However, Kashmiri pandit organisations say the government is not doing enough for migrant Kashmiri pandits. “All I say is they are constructing transit accommodations for migrant Kashmiri pandit employees. There is nothing residential in it,” says Ajay Charangoo, president of Panun Kashmir. He says the government should relocate the employees as the security situation in the Valley is not conducive for Kashmiri pandit migrants to continue their job.

While Pandita sees separate accommodation for the PM package employees as a welcome development, he says rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits should include a lot of welfare measures and it shouldn’t be confined to brick-and-mortar buildings. “When we choose to work in Kashmir, we get cut off from our families. Our parents are getting old, our children are growing. They are in Jammu and they need us. And we are far away in the Valley putting up in transit accommodations. The government should have a transfer policy for Kashmiri Pandit employees and they should be moved to Jammu after working in Kashmir for a specific period of time. Let it be five to ten years,” he says, adding “That will only bring some sanity in our lives.”

“Our parents lived through hard times to sustain us in the 1990s. Now when they need us most we are not around,” he notes. 

Pandita expresses how the tense situation in Kashmir Valley has caused additional problems with their parents and children calling them 30 times a day to know about their well-being. “They cannot live and die in this perpetual anxiety. Let the government move out the migrant employees from Kashmir after a specific time,” he adds. 

The government accommodation, if given soon after the employee gets an appointment letter, is a good step, he says. “But for our psychological well-being, we need a break from Kashmir.”