KL Report
SRINAGAR
J&K has 280622 registered labourers with Poonch topping the list with 30,000 labourers. In the 22 district ranking, Kargil falls at the bottom with the lowest number of registered labourers – 6329.
Baramulla is the second labour-abundant district with 29092 registered labourers as neighbouring Kupwara falls at third number with 25300.
Twin capital cities Srinagar and Jammu have registered labour force of 18424 and 15000. The least labour registrations are from Samba (6500), Kathua (6704), Ramban (7494), Reasi (6952), Leh (7183) and Ganderbal (7222).
Informed sources told Kashmir Life that labour department is extending certain benefits to the registered labour class. Under the welfare systems in vogue, the government has extended scholarships worth Rs 14.29 crore to the wards of the labourers in the first nine months of the last fiscal ending December 2014.
Besides, the families whose registered labourers have died have got an assistance of Rs 20.07 crore in this period, Rs 46.16 lakh has been given as help to fight chronic diseases. Across the 22 districts Rs 15.97 crore has gone as marriage assistance to the families of registered labourers to marry their wards, the information suggested.
Analysis of the data suggests there are visible disparities in certain areas. Poonch, for instance got only Rs 8.10 lakh as scholarship unlike neighbouring Rajouri that got Rs 1.99 crore despite the fact that Poonch has three times registered labour force than Poonch. For marriage assistance Poonch got more than double the money (Rs 3.33 crore) if compared to Baramull and Kupwara. In fact Shopian got (Rs 2.31 crore) more than Kupwara (Rs 1.53 crore) despite the fact that Shopian has only 8000 registered labourers.
With the dispensation in place, it is high time that more welfare schemes are introduced for the labour class and discrimination in the existing ones is done away with.
