Srinagar, April 27: Hundreds of Kashmiri students stranded in several parts of India are facing financial crises and medical problems due to the coronavirus lockdown .The Kashmiri students and labourers in stating that they had been stranded over 40 days in Uttarakhand state in India and wanted to return home as due to the coronavirus lockdown they were facing a financial crisis.
Abrar Khan, a student from Dehradun, told media men that he along with other students was stranded since the lockdown was imposed across India.
“We are running out of resources and it is very difficult to stay back under these circumstances,” he said. Khan said this was taking a toll on their mental health and they were suffering from depression and anxiety.
“We are around 60-70 students stranded in several cities of Uttrakhand and our families are suffering,” he said.
Another stranded student, Irfan Mir stated they had been trying to contact various helpline numbers and emails issued by the J&K administration but had not received any response so far.
“J&K administration should evacuate us as we are facing problems on a daily basis and also a financial crunch,” he said. Mir said their families had become anxious about their safety and health. “We are on the verge of breakdown now.
Basit Shakeel, a labourer stranded in Dehradun, said they were running out of money.“Although local administration is helping us, it has been more than 30 days since I, along with several labourers, am stranded and are facing problems in the city, ” he said.
A dozen Kashmiri students belong to Ganderbal, Handwara, Kulgam, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajaouri, and Budgam are stuck in Agra in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and they want to go to their homes safely.
The students, including four women, are aged between 19 and 25 years. They are students of the Agra University and staying in rented accommodations in Naseerabad colony of Khandari area in the city.
The students, enrolled in different programmes, had stayed back due to their examinations in March and thought they would return to their homes in Kashmir once the lockdown was over, one of them said.
"We had no clue that the lockdown would last so long and the situation would worsen here in Agra also in terms of the coronavirus outbreak. We have run out of money and food supplies, the banks are not working, going out is a risk because the city is a COVID-19 hotspot and back home our families are also worried for us, Manzoor Wani, 24, told media men.
Wani, pursuing MSc in Forestry, said the Agra administration has been helpful in providing them food packets but also added that three of the students had fallen ill with diarrhoea after consuming "poori-sabzi" around a week ago.
"After that we requested for dry ration and got some rice. For five days, we had just rice and salt," Wani said, adding that taking food packets was risky and if by chance any of the students gets infected with the virus, the trouble will only increase for them.
Meanwhile, more than 62,000 labourers from Jammu and Kashmir, who have been stranded in various parts of India amid Covid-19 lockdown are facing shortage of food and other commodities.
The actual number of the stranded labourers might be much more as these 62,000 labourers are only those whose distressed calls were received on the helpline numbers, set up by the local authorities in the territory.
Out of the total number of registered stranded labourers in the Indian states, a total of around 20,000 are stuck in Himachal Pradesh (HP), followed by Maharashtra with 13,000 while in Uttar Pradesh around 10,000 are stranded.
Similarly, in Punjab the number of labourers stranded from Kashmir is 3000 while the figures in Delhi, Uttrakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal and Goa stand at 2500, 2000, 3000, 1700, 1500, 1000, 300 and 1800 respectively. In addition, as many as 154 people of Jammu and Kashmir are stranded in Nepal. However, there could be many other stranded Kashmiri residents in India as the number symbolizes only those of labourers, who had made distressed calls and the exact number could swell in near future.
“Maximum of the stranded labourers had made distressed calls on our helpline numbers, demanding some help such as food, accommodation or payment of the salary by the employer,” Commissioner Secretary of Labour and Employment Department Saurav Bhagat said. sources agencies