Journalism of Courage
AT THE break of dawn, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) worker Mohammad Yousuf leaves home for his job — keeping the streets of Srinagar clean. He and two others, Mohammad Shafi and Misra Begum, are assigned the area outside Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta. Most days they are done within two hours. What they dread are Saturdays, when it falls upon Yousuf, 50, and others like him to clear the streets after the rage of Friday’s stone-pelting.
These days, most days are Saturdays.
Jamia Masjid in Old City, the seat of Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, is the Ground Zero of the protests, and it takes the three at least two extra hours after a day of stone-pelting to clear the road of stones as well as bricks and teargas shells.
“The stones and bricks are all over,” says Yousuf, who lives 3 km from Nowhatta, in Saidakadal. “Some are as heavy as 3 kg. But what makes the job more difficult is the stink of teargas and pepper grenades, making it difficult to breathe.”
Yousuf’s colleague Misra Begum, 45, gets her 24-year-old son Javid Ahmad Wani along for the job. “She is old and a woman,” Yousuf says. “It is not easy for her to clean the roads, especially when one has to remove big stones. Her son does most of the work.”
Begum says that poverty forced her to take up this job, even though she is not fit. “Initially, I could manage. But some years ago, while I was pushing a hand cart filled with stones up a steep path, it rolled back and hit me on the leg. Since then, I find it difficult to even walk,” she says. “Now I bring my son with me, though his one leg too is afflicted by polio. Sometimes my husband comes along to help.”
Says Yousuf, “First we sift the bigger stones and carry them to the side and pile them there. Then we sweep away the pebbles and dust using brooms. Every Saturday morning, we collect around two to three handcarts of stones.”
For most of his 18 years in the SMC, Yousuf has been posted at Nowhatta. He started out as a daily wage employee earning Rs 4,500 a month. A few years ago, he was regularised and now gets Rs 13,700 a month.
“It is not enough,” Yousuf says. “Our job is not only difficult but has many health hazards. Only a fortnight ago, I had to spend Rs 7,000 on various (diagnostic) tests. I had severe chest infection and the doctors said it was because of the pepper smoke I inhaled.”
“First we sift the bigger stones and carry them to the side and pile them there. Then we sweep away the pebbles and dust using brooms. Every Saturday morning, we collect around two to three handcarts of stones” said Mohammad yousuf, Srinagar municipal corporation worker
Even without the stone-pelting, there is always tension in the air, Yousuf says. “If somebody dumps construction material on the road, for example, police call us.” Nervous that it may be used by stone-pelters, “they ask us to make sure it is removed before Friday. We have to put extra men but ensure that the road is clean before the Friday prayers.”
SMC Commissioner Dr Shafqat Khan adds, “It is an extra burden on us. We often get request from police and public after such incidents. Sometimes, we have to call sweepers from their homes to get the roads cleared.”
Yousuf doesn’t remember a Friday without stone-pelting at Nowhatta, except the few occasions when Eid fell on that day. Sometimes they are not allowed in the area due to curfew.
While Srinagar has been seeing almost daily protests these days, Yousuf says things are not as bad as 2010.
Once their carts get full with the stones, bricks etc, Yousuf and his colleagues head to a nearby dumping point. “We drop the stones there. An (SMC) vehicle comes and takes them to the dumping site (at Achen).”
If the stones are carted away, where do the youth keep getting them from? “That has always puzzled us,” says Yousuf. “We talk about this too, that where do the boys get the stones from. We have no answers. On Friday morning, when we sweep the roads, if we find a stone, we remove it immediately. We know, we will have to remove it in any case the next day. It is a mystery even to us.”
