Introduction

People belonging to the Scheduled Tribes live across all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. They constitute around 12 per cent of the Jammu and Kashmir population. Amongst the Scheduled Tribes, Gujjars constitute the largest recognised tribe. The existing literature suggests that Gujjars are predominantly nomadic, that they are mainly shepherds by occupation, and that they live in self-sufficient households. The present study is an attempt to question the validity of these characteristics in contemporary times using data collected from a field survey of 1,346 Gujjar households across Jammu and Kashmir.

The people of the Scheduled Tribes have historically been subjected to multiple forms of deprivations, including lack of access to land (Bakshi 2008). While democratic governments have historically sought classical land reform policies to bring about equality in landholding, these are no longer on the agenda under neoliberal policy. People belonging to the Scheduled Tribes continue to remain predominantly landless and resource-scarce today.

Among Scheduled Tribes, nomadic people have the least and declining access to land and land rights (Gilbert 2007). Without a fixed place of dwelling, these groups move from one place to another. On the basis of an extensive review of the legal literature, Gilbert identified a special corpus of human rights laws that are dedicated to the rights of tribal communities. He believes that this corpus can be used to resolve the issue of the requirement of “effective occupation” in ensuring land ownership for nomadic people. While these laws have been in existence for a long time, countries have effectively failed to implement them to safeguard the lives and rights of tribal communities across the globe. Extending the discussion to the Indian context, in a recent study, Lal (2023), using secondary data, claimed that some nomadic tribes in India continue to follow the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, while most of them have become pastoral nomads. The findings of the study demonstrate that the laws of the Indian Constitution have been weak and ineffective in safeguarding the well-being, land rights, and settlement of Scheduled Tribes across India (Lal 2023).

In Jammu and Kashmir, Gujjars and Bakarwals are the two main Scheduled Tribes. Of the total Scheduled Tribe population in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujjars constitute 69 per cent (1.5 million people in the Census 2011), making them the largest Scheduled Tribe group in the region. The literature on the socio-economic status of the Gujjars is thin.

A review of reliable literature, most of which comes from Gujjar educationists, brings out some broad characteristics of the population. Warikoo and Som (2008), Rahi (2011), and Vaid (2017) argue that historically, Gujjars have been pastoral shepherds. Javaid Rahi (2011) argues that historically, Scheduled Tribes, apart from being nomadic, have primarily been shepherds. Their economy has been identified as self-sufficient (Ahmed and Ahmed 2019). These studies have relied on either secondary sources of data that are not from the last few decades or have based their opinions on small-scale studies, selecting one or two villages in a single district. Do the Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir continue to be nomadic? Does sheep rearing continue to be their major occupation? Are they still self-sufficient? To answer these questions and to gain an understanding of the demographic and socio-economic features of Gujjars, a State-level field study was conducted, covering all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Data and Methods

The sample size for the entire study was 1,500 households. Of these, 154 were Bakarwal households, and were thus not included in the present analysis. A questionnaire-based sample survey of 1,346 households was conducted in 2024. District-wise data from Census 2011 were used to rank districts by the size of the Scheduled Tribe population. The proportional sampling method was used to determine the district-level sample size. Within each district, tehsils with Scheduled Tribe populations were identified. Within the identified tehsils, villages were selected randomly for sampling. The tehsil- and district-wise sample size has been given in Appendix Table 1. A total of 39 villages were sampled. Of these, 21 belong to Jammu division and 18 belong to Kashmir. A total of 1,346 households belonging to the Gujjar community were surveyed, dividing the district-level sample size by the number of villages sampled. The main respondent was the head of the household. Therefore, the terms “respondent” and “household head” have been used interchangeably in the text. Data on selected variables, including residential status, housing, occupation, assets, agricultural practices, and household income were collected.

Results and Discussion

The survey data show that the household head is the main decision-maker of the household. The field analysis showed that 96 per cent of households were headed by the eldest male member of the family. Only 4 per cent households were headed by the (eldest) female member of the family. The average age of the household head was reported to be 46 years, and 65 per cent of the household heads were reported to be illiterate.

The field survey revealed that the Gujjar population is present across all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Table 1 presents information on the settlement status of Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir. Around 97 per cent of Gujjars have given up the nomadic lifestyle. Over the past three to four decades, households have settled in single locations. Factors such as climate change, limited access to forests after the passing of multiple forest laws, and decreasing returns from shepherding have led Gujjars to settle down and give up their nomadic lifestyle. Findings from the field thus go against the characterisation of Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir as pastoral and nomadic. While Gujjars have been nomadic in the past, contemporary evidence shows that they have settled outside forests, forming small hamlets. Survey data indicate that only 3 per cent of Gujjars are nomadic, and they belong predominantly to the Kashmir division of Jammu and Kashmir. The Gujjars of Jammu have steadily settled down, and only a few members of a household move with the cattle during the peak (summer) season.

All respondent households resided on land that belonged to them. Houses were built on own land, on average holdings of 0.125 ha. Table 2 presents data on the type of houses among the sample. It can be seen that around 86 per cent of respondent households had katcha houses. In this study, a katcha (temporary) house is defined as a structure that is made of mud, unstructured wood, unburnt clay bricks, and/or stones. Given the climate with extreme weather and harsh winters in Jammu and Kashmir, households need well-built structures in which to live. Houses endure heat in the summers when the temperature goes up to 37 °C and cold in winters when temperatures fall to –10 °C. All the katcha houses surveyed were well insulated, making them liveable in local climatic conditions.

Only 14 per cent of respondent households across Jammu and Kashmir live in pucca or permanent houses, that is, structures made of burnt brick, cement, and structured wood. The pucca houses surveyed were mostly one storied with decent insulation. Most pucca houses were constructed recently and not more than five years old. The respondents said that they build a structure one year, and then, as the resources flow in over time, they make further additions.

One per cent of respondents lived in tents.¹ They belonged to the nomadic sub-group of Gujjars and said they intended to continue their nomadic lifestyle. Tent dwellers were found across different districts of Jammu and Kashmir and were not restricted to any specific area. Further, they hold Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards, an indication of the abject poverty in which they lived. They reported their main occupation as daily wage labourers and did not report the possession of any household assets.

Of the 1 per cent households that reported no assets, only one household reported being nomadic. The rest of the households in this category were settled and lived on small patches of land owned by the family. This land, however, was not enough to be used for purposes other than living and was mostly covered by the homes of the owners. Household heads were all wage workers and their self-reported monthly income was below Rs 5,000. These households also lack access to electricity and LPG fuel and rely heavily on firewood for cooking. A total of 115 households held AAY ration cards. Most AAY households either lived in a tent or a katcha structure. Only 8 per cent of the AAY card-owning households reported living in a pucca house.

As mentioned earlier, according to Javaid Rahi (2011), historically, tribal communities were nomadic and primarily shepherds by occupation. Shepherding was also related to self-sufficiency as the people engaged in this occupation were also closely tied to the forest economy. Self-sufficiency, for the understanding of the present study, refers to households producing adequate staple foods for their own consumption. Professor Rahi has explored the food preferences of Gujjars in his work (Rahi 2011).

The findings from the field challenge the notion of self-sufficiency in the production of basic foods among the Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir while also bringing to the fore the process of commercialisation of sheep rearing. Corn and milk, some vegetables and lentils were cultivated for domestic use. Agricultural commercialisation is still limited, but has grown over time. Economic transactions of Scheduled Tribe households with the market economy and non-tribal population have increased over time. Scheduled Tribe families sell multiple products in the open economy, including sheep and goat, milk, other dairy items, and wool.

Table 3 presents data on the primary occupation of the respondents. The classification has been made in accordance with the National Classification of Occupations (NCO) 2008. It is clear that the primary occupation of the Gujjars in Jammu and Kashmir is no longer shepherding. Most workers are wage labourers in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors (that is, they come within the categories “Labourer Agricultural” and “Labourer Other” in NCO 2008). Wage labour is driven by seasonality. The field survey showed that, during the peak agricultural season, most members of the Gujjar community who were of working age were able to find employment as workers in nearby villages. In the off season, they migrated to towns and urban areas in pursuit of non-agricultural employment. Findings from the field reveal that shepherding is no longer the main economic activity amongst the Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2024, only 17 per cent of respondents in the sample reported their main occupation to be shepherding livestock (classified as herdsman).

Around 25 per cent of respondents reported farming to be their main occupation and were designated crop cultivators. It was widely observed that commercial farming practices were absent amongst the Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir. Given the small size of landholdings, with an average of 0.125 ha, the land was used either as a homestead or for subsistence farming (growing corn) or kitchen gardening.

Around 16 per cent of respondents reported their primary occupation as homemakers and have been classified as “not employed.” Of these 217 respondents, only 40 per cent were women and the rest were men. It is interesting that a large fraction of men who self-reported as homemakers said that they used to work as either shepherds or labourers in the past. Since they were no longer able to perform manual and physical tasks, they tended to stay at home and help other household members with domestic chores. Some said that, over time, they stopped making profits from shepherding and thus had to quit the occupation.

Three per cent of the respondents were government employees. However, most of the respondents worked as unskilled daily wage workers and were not employed in a regularised way by the government. A few of the respondents were government teachers, and some women were Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers. One per cent of the respondents reported their primary occupation as students.² Private and part-time workers, religious preachers, and others, following NCO, were categorised under the sub-group “Other.”

Our survey found that 81 per cent of Scheduled Tribes owned cultivable land (Table 4), a higher proportion than the corresponding figure for Scheduled Tribe households all over India, 20 per cent (Mathur 2009). A general concern raised by the respondents pertained to the value of their land: one hectare of land in the areas surveyed was valued at less than Rs 500,000.

The main field crop grown was corn; households also did kitchen gardening. The average cultivable landholding was 0.125 ha, which in most cases included the homestead. This is lower than the national average of 0.80 ha (as per the Agricultural Census of 2021–22). The amount of corn and vegetables grown on 0.125 ha is inadequate to feed a family of five for the entire year. The respondents said that, on an average, they grew five to seven 20-kg bags of corn in a year. The price of a bag of corn was Rs 250–300. The output per hectare was low on account of the use of traditional agricultural practices and the absence of modernisation (Table 5).

The average value of land was reported to be between Rs 400,000 and Rs 500,000 per hectare, while the average yield per hectare was 50–80 per cent lower than yields harvested by cultivators living in the plains of Jammu and Kashmir. Livestock was an important household asset. The domestic production of milk was strongly associated by respondents with increased household welfare (though only half the sample owned cattle).

Most Gujjar households in Jammu and Kashmir were in the category of Below Poverty Line (BPL) or AAY (Table 6). The Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir rely heavily on welfare measures and schemes of the government. No household in the sample reported an annual household income above Rs 30,000, nor domestic production valued at more than Rs 2,000 per annum, pointing to an overall prevalence of low levels of income, output, and living standards (Chauhan et al. 2016).

Conclusions

The analysis in this Note is based on a sample of 1,346 households drawn from all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. I examined three features of living standards among the Gujjar community of Jammu and Kashmir. The public perception of the community is that they have a nomadic lifestyle, are mainly herders of livestock, and are self-sufficient in food. This view has also dominated the academic literature on the living conditions among the Gujjar people of Kashmir. Findings from the field reveal a different picture. They have predominantly settled across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir and are no longer nomadic. The study also refuted the view that the Gujjar people are mainly shepherds and herdsmen by occupation. The number and proportion of shepherds among Gujjar households have declined substantially over time and now most of them have given up the occupation. Lastly, given the extent of land held by Gujjar households and the low levels of agricultural production on the plots of land that Gujjar farmers operate, most households did not produce adequate food and relied heavily on the public distribution system for subsistence.

It is important that these changes in basic demographic and occupational characteristics of the Gujjar people of Jammu and Kashmir are acknowledged and that a recognition of these changes informs public policy interventions. The Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir are no longer a nomadic community, their needs have evolved, and focussed policy interventions are required to help them transition smoothly to a settled way of life.