 Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 27: The Jammu Kashmir's building and other Construction Workers' Board has got an advertisement published in local dailies. The advertisement has come up with various welfare schemes for the workers.
The advertisement offers financial assistance, medical assistance to kith and kin incase of death of the worker. Normally the schemes should have been widely hailed by the workers at least. However, scores of workers when told about the schemes said that they had no knowledge about it.
When a newspaper carrying the advertisement was shown, Ghulam Muhammad from Kupwara who comes to Srinagar to earn a livelihood laughed. "I cannot read English," he said.
The advertisement is in English and cannot, therefore, be comprehended by the workers, who by and large are illiterates. "This is waste of public money by the Board," he said.
But can they read Urdu or Hindi for that matter? Most of the workers said they could not read Urdu as well. If this is any indicator, then the workers in Jammu region may have a similar story to tell. So what is the alternative? How can the board reach out to the workers?
Social workers have the solution. The Board has to go to the workers and tell them about the welfare schemes. "There is no fun wasting money on publication of advertisement," they said. |
