spending winter without home

Srinagar Jan 10: The extreme wintry weather conditions that valley has been experiencing these days has disturbed the normal life. The minimum temperature has reached the all time low in decades. The non-availability of water and erratic power supply has aggravated the sufferings of the valleyites. Most of the people prefer to stay indoors in their comfortable and cozy rooms.
The most hit by this harsh winters are the homeless. The abject poverty is forcing hundreds of homeless people to spend the wintry nights in small makeshift tent hutments.
As one moves towards the outskirts of the Srinagar city like Ellahibagh, Ahmed Nagar and 90-feet road, one comes across many small clusters of makeshift tent hutments. Majority of these belong to the nomadic Gujjar bakerwall tribe.
The nomadic Gujjar Bakerwall tribe traditionally arrive in the Kashmir valley in the earlier summers and migrate back to the warmer plains at the onset of the fall. The majority of the Gujjar Bakerwall community still follows this tradition. Most of these are engaged in rearing of animals.
However, there are exceptions as well. Some of the members of this community stay back in the valley. Sadiq Bahliwal, 37, is one such exception. Sadiq and his family, which consists of his wife and three children, have spent the last eight winters in their makeshift tent hutment. ”winters are difficult time for my family and me. I have no alternative but to live in the tent hutments”, says Sadiq.
Sadiq the father of three children, the younger one as young as two months old, does menial jobs to sustain his family. When asked about the reasons for not migrating to the warmer plains, ”i had the piece of agriculture land in Rajouri which i sold and like others i am not even involved in the rearing of animals”, said Sadiq.
“Moreover if i move out my family will die of starvation. Here i work as labourer and i am able to sustain my family. The people living in the neighbourhood are also generous and they help us in the form of clothes and food”, added Sadiq.
Sadiq’s wife shameema, 34, recently gave birth to triplets. Two of them died within 24 hours of their birth. She also helps her family by doing odd jobs in the neighbourhood.
“Fetching water from a distance is the hardest tasks that i have to do”, said shameema.
Sadiq’s family is not only family who live in tent hutments in these severe winters. There are other families and their tale is no different from his. Abject poverty and very little opportunities of work in Rajouri and Poonch forces them to spend the cold winters in the tent hutments.
“We don’t get work opportunities in Rajouri and Poonch. Only those who own large herds migrate”, says Hassan Bahliwal.
As for as Sadiq goes, he is optimistic that weather will improve. “Like the previous winters this winter will also pass by”, said an optimistic Sadiq.