By Sameer Ahmad Sheikh

I left Kashmir years ago to work in Qatar, and the first thing that struck me about the employment world outside was how ordinary my decision had actually been. 

Millions of people from dozens of countries make the same calculation every year: move toward the work, rather than wait for the work to come home. 

That calculation still feels like a betrayal to many Kashmiri families, a silent admission of failure rather than a plan.

The numbers do not support that shame. 

According to the Annual Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2023-24, unemployment among people aged 15 and above in Jammu and Kashmir touched 6.1 percent, with the pressure heaviest among the young. 

Behind that figure sit graduates I met before I left, men and women with degrees who told me, without much emotion left in their voices, that they were prepared to take ₹5,000 a month if it meant staying close to home. 

That figure is a personal memory, rather than an average salary for the region’s graduates. I still think about those words.

What has also not left me is the contrast waiting on the other side of the flight. 

In the Middle East, I came to know Kashmiris who now hold executive and managerial titles, earning, once converted, several lakhs of rupees........

© Kashmir Observer