Daily wagers, contractual staff protest in Srinagar seeking regularisation of services

]Daily wagers and contractual employees working in different government departments protested along with their children and other family members in Srinagar on Thursday to press for the promised demand of regularisation of their services.

The protest was organised by the JK Employees Joint Action Committee, which stated that if the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) government doesn’t clarify its policy regarding the daily wagers, they would again gather outside the NC office in Srinagar and demand the fulfilment of the promises for which they voted the party to power. They urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue in his next ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme so that the JK CM would take some action.

“We have 4.5 lakh government employees, 3 lakh pensioners, 61,000 daily wagers and casual labourers, who voted for this party. Now is the time for them to fulfil their promise. Otherwise, we would gather outside their office on February 16,” an employee representative said during the protest.


The protestors lamented that their lives were ruined with the daily wage and casual engagement as they had to run their households with a meagre monthly salary of Rs 9,000. “How can we pay the fee of our children and buy medicine for our parents. We are a lost generation, but we won’t allow our families to suffer further,” said Manzoor Ahmad, who has been a casual employee for more than a decade now.

Children of the daily wagers were holding placards reading, “we too have a dream” , “we want justice” , “phased problems, lifelong problems”.

The government said in its official response in the assembly that a committee had been constituted in March 2025 to examine the issues pertaining to the regularisation of different categories of workers. “The committee has been mandated to examine the matter taking into account the humanitarian, legal and financial perspectives and suggest a comprehensive way forward,” it said.

Abdullah said daily wagers would be regularised in a phased manner following the report of the committee.

The official figures of the daily wagers and casual workers oscillate between 60,000 and 100,000, depending on who is in the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sakina Itto, a minister in Abdullah’s council, told reporters that the government was working on resolving the issue but some political parties “are exploiting the sentiments of daily wagers and casual workers” to fulfil their political agenda.

The opposition BJP, PDP, PC and AIP vehemently criticised the government for not announcing the regularisation policy for these employees in the budget documents presented during the ongoing session of the assembly in Jammu.

“We salute these daily wagers who are running our essential services but we are not able to deliver them justice. This is a human issue and it needs to be resolved. Irony is that despite minuscule wages these people are also suffering because of pending wages,” said Sham Lal Sharma, a former minister and BJP legislator.

PDP MLA from Pulwama Waheed Para said the government must begin the new financial year with the “regularisation of daily wage workers, those who toil tirelessly to keep the administration running”. “Restore their dignity, rights and fair pay without delay,” he said.