Perspective is everything. Most Indians may back the government’s decision to end cross-border trade with Pakistan after the terror attack in Pulwama 11 months ago. But ask the young man whose wedding was called off, or the trader who had sold ancestral land to buy 14 trucks for that trade, and the situation looks much bleaker.

A detailed ground report from around the Attari border, Amritsar, and two former trading towns (Poonch and Uri) in Jammu and Kashmir has brought out stark negatives of the situation for particular persons in those borderlands. The report amounts to an urgent cry for the government to work on alternatives that could provide economic succour to people in those border areas.

One particular project could hugely promote the interests of traders, and indeed the people at large around Amritsar. That’s the construction of a 30-km railway line on this side of the border.

The new line would replace a stretch that fell on the Pakistani side of the border, not far from Ferozpur, after the Partition. It would shorten the distance from Amritsar to Mumbai by 300 km, or six hours of running time. It would be a boon for those taking goods and produce of the area to India’s main trading gateway to the world.

‘Collateral damage’

Of course, this would be of help to major traders, not the minor players who made a living from the cross-border trade. These include truck drivers, loaders, those who ran and worked at dhabas, tyre repair stands, fruit vends, or serviced the route of the trucks to the border.

These, in the words of retired Lt Gen Satish Dua, were the “collateral damage” of the suspension of trade. Dua, one of those who released the report, has served as Corps Commander in Kashmir and as Brigade Commander in Poonch, one of the key trading points.

The incomes of minor players in the trade were already small. These incomes have now been wiped out. And most of them don’t have skillsets that would allow them to easily adapt to the changed circumstances.

One household of four brothers and their families used to make around Rs 60,000 a month from jobs such as driving trucks. Now, they live off just Rs 250 a day that one of the brothers is given for reciting the Gurbani at the local gurudwara every evening.

A young man had become engaged about a year ago. The bride’s family thought he was a worthwhile match since he had an income of Rs 15,000 as a truck driver. Now that he is out of work, the match is off.

The total volume of trade was no more than about $2.5 billion, $2 billion of that from India to Pakistan. Pakistan’s exports mainly consisted of cement, gypsum, rock salt, and dry dates. But it was enough to sustain large sections of border communities.

Almost 10,000 families have been affected in one way or another by the suspension of trade, the authors of the report, Afaq Hussain and Nikita Singla, say. Hussain is the director of the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals, which undertook the research.

Press under fire

Several of those who spoke at the publication of the report asked why they had never heard of the plight of the poor people and the traders over the past few months. The press was pointedly in the firing line for neglecting this very human story.

Most of those who received the report agreed that there was little prospect of trade being resumed, given the angularities between India and Pakistan.

India withdrew Pakistan’s Most Favoured Nation status on February 16 last year, two days after the bombing in Pulwama which killed 44 security men. It suspended trade across the Line of Control on April 18.

On August 9, four days after India changed the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan expelled India’s ambassador, shut its airspace to Indian flights, and suspended bilateral trade.

A senior government officer put it succinctly: India has reduced engagement with Pakistan from the “two Ts” of trade and terrorism to the “one T” of terrorism.

One unintended consequence is that confidence in the prospects of trade have been damaged long-term. Pardeep Sehgal, a leading Amritsar-based trader, made the point that having suffered huge losses because of tense relations between the two countries, many traders would be chary of resuming their investments even if New Delhi and Islamabad were to agree to resume trade.

However, there was general agreement at the function to launch the report that the plight of those who have suffered called for urgent steps from the government to create alternative income sources.

The Punjab chief minister has apparently vouchsafed land for the new 30-km railway line. That ball is now in the court of the central government.