Why has the number of Hajj pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir fallen sharply?

Like many Muslims, 63-year-old Mohammad Ashraf wants to go on the Hajj.

For every adult Muslim, it is mandatory to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar at least once in a lifetime – provided he or she is able to afford it and is physically able to perform the rituals.

But Ashraf, a resident of Srinagar, faces a financial hurdle.

“If my wife and I plan to go, it means I need around Rs 9 lakh, besides other expenses,” said Ashraf, a retired government employee whose name has been changed on request. “That’s not possible for a person who lives on pension and when every household item has become very expensive.”

Ashraf is not an exception.

This year, the number of people from Jammu and Kashmir applying to perform the Hajj has been the lowest in over two decades.

The administration has received only 4,313 applications, though Jammu and Kashmir is entitled to 8,000 slots. Under a national quota, each state and union territory is allowed to send a specific number of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

Some of those who applied eventually backed out. Nearly 700 applicants failed to pay the first installment of Rs 1.3 lakh each.

“We even extended the deadline for the first installment multiple times but around 700 applicants were unable to pay,” said Shujaat Ahmad Qureshi, executive officer of Jammu and Kashmir State Haj Committee, a government body that manages the pilgrimage in the union territory.

Experts and officials blamed the falling number of Hajj pilgrims on the escalating cost of the journey, the devaluation of the Indian rupee – and on the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir’s economy.

The slide

Till a few years ago, the number of Hajj applications from Jammu and Kashmir would run into several thousands.

“Of the total Hajj quota allotted to India by the Saudi government, Jammu and Kashmir gets 4.9%,” said Qureshi. “As we used to get a high number of applications, the central government had also given additional 2,000 slots to J&K per year.”

Given the mismatch between the number of aspirants and the allotted seats, the pilgrims were chosen through a draw of lots.

In 2017, 35,000 people applied to undertake the pilgrimage. In 2023, the number of applications was 14,217. That year, over 12,000 pilgrims undertook the journey to Saudi Arabia – a record.

The numbers nosedived in the last two years.

Last year, around 8,136 people applied to go on Hajj against the allocated quota of 8,345. However, only 7,008 pilgrims went on to take the pilgrimage eventually. This year, the number stands at 3,600.

Rising costs

A major contributing factor, said Qureishi, the executive officer of Jammu and Kashmir State Haj Committee, is the escalating cost of the pilgrimage.

“In 2002, the cost of Hajj pilgrimage from J&K was Rs 86,000,” he said. “Adjusting for inflation, the cost should amount to approximately Rs 2.7 lakh.”

But the cost now stands at approximately Rs 4.3 lakh per person.

Qureshi said the costs were pushed up by a weakening rupee and the Indian government’s decision to provide improved services and facilities to pilgrims in the last few years. For instance, for the stay in Medina, around 95% of pilgrims are put up within the 500 metres of the sacred mosque – when only 40% could stay so close earlier.

The end of Hajj subsidy by the Union government has also made the pilgrimage costlier.

Till that year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation would make air travel arrangements and provide a subsidy on airfare. This policy of government support to Muslims in making the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia dated back to British rule.

In 2012, the Supreme Court directed the central government to reduce and phase out the Rs 685 crore subsidy over a period of 10 years.

However, before the Supreme Court deadline, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government abolished the entire subsidy for Hajj pilgrimage in 2018. As a result, the entire cost of Hajj is now borne by pilgrims themselves.

Economic crisis

But the decline story of Hajj applications in Jammu and Kashmir is also a tale of Kashmir’s economic strain.

In the run-up to the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and statehood in August, 2019, the Centre shut down Kashmir for months, costing its economy nearly Rs 18,000 crore.

Thousands lost their jobs. Then came the double whammy of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and another series of lockdowns. Following the second wave of Covid-19 in 2021, the overall loss to Jammu and Kashmir’s economy in three back-to-back lockdowns was estimated at Rs 60,000 crores.

The economy continues to struggle.

For the last three to four years, the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir has consistently remained in two digits. In November, the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey showed that Jammu and Kashmir had an alarming unemployment rate of 32% within the age group of 15-29. “That means out of every three young people, one is unemployed. What does it lead to? It increases the average poverty of a household,” said an economics scholar from Srinagar, who is an expert of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy. He declined to be identified.

Besides the chronic unemployment, he said, the core sectors of Kashmir’s economy, like horticulture and trading, have not been doing well in the last few years.

“Hajj is mandatory for someone who can afford it,” said the expert. “But in Kashmir, people are spending only on basic necessities amidst high inflation. Whenever we witness stress on consumption in the economy, the first items to drop off a consumer’s basket are luxuries.”

This is in sharp contrast to New Delhi’s claim that the scrapping of Article 370 has brought economic development to the region.

More takers for a minor pilgrimage

With Hajj becoming expensive, many have tried to satisfy their urge of visiting the holy sites in Mecca and Medina through Umrah.

Unlike Hajj, which is mandatory, Umrah is voluntary and is often called a “minor pilgrimage.” While the rituals of Hajj are to be performed over a period of five to six days, Umrah can be performed in a matter of a few hours.

It is cheaper and can be wrapped up in 15 days, while Hajj involves a 45-day stay. The average cost of Umrah for a single individual is around Rs 1.2 lakh.

Take the case of Sarfaraz Ahmad, whose name has been changed on request. “My wife and I wished to see the Kaaba [the square building of stone near the centre of the Great Mosque in Mecca] before we die. But I can’t afford to arrange around Rs 9-10 lakhs for Hajj for both of us,” said Ahmad, 62, a retired government employee. “Through Umrah, we both managed to see Kaaba within the cost of under Rs 3 lakh.”

Qureshi, the executive officer of the Jammu and Kashmir State Haj Committee, confirmed this trend. “Around 15-20,000 people from J&K perform Umrah every year.”

However, Qureshi said the clergy must dissuade people from this rush for Umrah. “We have to convince them that Umrah is not an alternative to Hajj,” he explained. “Instead of a family of five or six going to Umrah, if one or two people manage to perform Hajj on that money, that’s better.”