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This spring, if
tourists do not arrive in Kashmir in large numbers, Ghulam Jeelani, 52, could well lose his job. The
manager of a hotel in Srinagar’s tourist hub, Boulevard Road bordering the Dal
Lake, has been warned by his employer.
Tourist arrivals in Kashmir fell after the Centre abolished its
semi-autonomous status on August 5, 2019, and followed this with a
communication clampdown in anticipation of unrest. While security restrictions
were relaxed amid heavy troop deployment, the internet shutdown has yet to be
lifted after nearly six months.
Following a Supreme Court order on January 10, 2020, the
government announced it would restore 2G mobile data on post-paid mobile phones
in all districts in Kashmir. But access was only allowed to a whitelist of
websites as per the order, leaving internet curbs largely unchanged.
Just the day before August 5, 2019, Jeelani’s hotel–he did not
wish it to be named–was almost fully booked. Of its 88 rooms, 63 were
reserved. The day after the abrogation announcement, the bookings fell to three
and have not risen beyond that number to date. Some days it does not have a
single guest, Jeelani said.
In 2018, Kashmir had received 316,434 tourists between August
and December; in 2019, this number fell to 43,059 for the same period, a
decline of 86%, showed tourism department data accessed by IndiaSpend.
In July 2019, Kashmir received 152,525 tourists but August 2019
saw only 10,130 arrivals and most of them in the first few days of the month.
This number further fell to 4,562 in September 2019, and grew to 12,086 in
November 2019.
“The number slightly improved in November during the winter
games at Gulmarg,” a tourism official said on condition of anonymity. In
December 2019, the numbers again fell to 6,954.
Despite this slump, on November 19, 2019, union tourism minister
Prahlad Singh Patel maintained that the state’s tourism had not been impacted
by the Centre’s moves. Patel, while answering a question in parliament, had
clubbed together tourism figures for Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu draws pilgrims in
large numbers to its Vaishno Devi shrine.
The communications
blockade in the state has impacted it on multiple fronts, affecting enterprise,
people’s access to critical health services and their mental health, as
IndiaSpend reported in a series in September 2019.
Tourism accounts for
7% of the state’s gross domestic product. To assess the impact of the
conditions following the orders of August 5, 2019, comparative figures for
tourist arrivals in the valley during 2019 and 2018 were analysed. In August
and September 2018, 85,534 and 103,195 tourists, respectively, visited Kashmir;
in 2019 these figures stood at 10,130 and 4,562 (an 88% and 95% drop,
respectively).
There have been
144,500 job losses in Kashmir’s tourism and handicrafts sector–mostly
dependent on earnings from travellers–since August 5, 2019, as per an estimate
of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
Overall commercial
losses in the state caused in the aftermath of the August 5, 2019, decisions
have been pegged at over Rs 15,000 crore ($2.1 billion) and total job losses at
496,000, as per KCCI estimates.
“The back of
Kashmir’s tourism sector has been broken because of the situation emerging
after August 5, 2019: Tourism is in a shambles while artisans and weavers are
jobless,” said Abdul Majeed, vice president of KCCI. “Doing trade without
favourable conditions and the internet is unimaginable in the present-day
world. In one fell swoop, irreversible damage has been caused to the state’s
economy; not a single sector has been spared.”
Jeelani used to earn
Rs 22,000 a month as a hotel manager but two months after the shutdown, his
salary had been slashed to less than one-third–Rs 6,000 a month. “How do you
run a household with Rs 6,000? And even that will go if tourists don’t arrive
in the next few weeks,” Jeelani said. Jeelani sat chatting with idle
shikarawalahs, boatmen who ferry tourists on the Dal. The pavement along the
boulevard, which otherwise bustles with activity, was empty except for the
group. There are around 4,000 boatmen in Srinagar who bank on tourist arrivals
for their livelihood, said Bashir Ahmad Sultani, the head of the boatmen’s
association.
Jeelani has not been
able to pay the coaching institute where his daughter Mariya studies since
October 2019 and had to plead for time. “The owner of the coaching centre
obliged only because he is an acquaintance,” he said. “But how long can he
wait? I just hope my full salary gets restored which is only possible if
tourism resumes.”
The family mostly
buys groceries on credit from neighbourhood shop.
“All of us have been
suffering since August 2019–there is no work at all as you can see,” said
Sultani of the boatmen’s association, leaning against a pillar at the jetty and
warming his hands over the kangri (a firepot kept under the pheran, a long
winter cloak). “The only option is to work as labourers at construction sites.
But not much of that work is available either and we wouldn’t know how to do
it.”
The boatmen we met spoke
of hard times, of families barely managing to survive. “Some of us cannot even
manage two square meals for their families, forget about paying electricity
bills or educating our children,” said Mohammad Shafi, a boatman.
In peak season,
between July and November, shikaras used to earn between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000
a day, according to Shafi. “We lost the peak season this year to curfews,
strikes and the long internet shutdown,” he said. “Our fear is that tourism
will be hit even more if there are agitations for the restoration of Article
370 and statehood.”
Courtesy
Athar Parvaiz for IndiaSpend
