PAHALGAM: Mohd Qasim (name changed) has worked as a pony handler in Pahalgam for twenty years. He is married, has two children, and lives in Aethar, about ten kilometres from the town centre. Everyone in the area knows him, locals and security personnel alike.
But since authorities began issuing QR codes to pony handlers following last year's militant attack, Qasim has no code and no license, and without either, he cannot move uphill to where the tourists are.
So, every day, he plays hide and seek with the checkpoints.
"I try to slip through without a QR code," he said. "If I am caught, they take my mobile phone, my ID, and I am still treated as if I am doing something wrong, even though I am a local."
Before the attack, he earned around 1,000-1,200 rupees a day. He says, it was enough to run his household smoothly. Now, on a good day, he earns 250-300 rupees. "That is not enough to survive. It is getting harder and harder."
Qasim is one of hundreds of pony operators across Pahalgam who are either locked out of the new system or carrying its costs - financial, psychological, and increasingly digital. You can’t get a QR code without a basic license. Illiterate and unfamiliar with government offices, he has avoided applying but adds he now has no choice.
The official license fee is just Rs 50 online, but obtaining it means visiting the Municipal Committee, Tehsil office, and police station over four to five days, losing around Rs 500 in daily earnings each day. The real cost, in other words, is not the fee but the time, the cost of traveling between officers and the lost income. Qasim calculates that the financial burden is anything between Rs 5000 and Rs 10,000.
Even that effort may be futile. The chairman of the Pony Operators' Association says the department has stopped issuing licenses, leaving many handlers in limbo despite having applied.
The rollout
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam militant attack last year, authorities began redesigning how informal workers in the region are identified and monitored.
The idea of issuing QR codes to pony handlers, taxi drivers, hawkers, photographers and nomadic communities was discussed in February this year. In March, local Pahalgam police announced that all such workers must register, undergo police verification, and complete Aadhaar-linked documentation before being issued a unique code.
No higher-ranking official visited the area during the rollout. Workers say they were given little information beyond knowing that the codes were meant for identification. The process is mandatory; without registration, workers would not be permitted to continue operating in upland areas.
Before QR codes, pony handlers operated on tourism department licenses alone. During the Amarnath Yatra season, the Labour Department issued additional cards, requiring only an Aadhaar card and police verification form, with anyone carrying an FIR automatically denied. Each license permitted an operator to run two horses. The QR code does not replace this system. It adds another layer.
Handlers must already hold a valid license before they can be issued a code, and the same Aadhaar and verification documents are required again. The details that once stayed within departmental records are now publicly scannable.
The process is straightforward on paper: submit a license, Aadhaar card, and police verification form, and if the documents are complete, the QR code is issued within one to two hours. Of the 1,900 registered operators, roughly 90 percent have applied and received their codes since the rollout. The remaining ten percent are still waiting, held back by incomplete documentation.
But the registered operators are only part of the picture. All 1,500 unregistered pony handlers are excluded from the system entirely, and hundreds more who applied for licenses at the tourism department, both before and after the April 22 attack, are still awaiting approval, with no clear timeline.
At hotspots such as Baisaran Valley, Duno Valley, Dayban, Waterfall, Old Shikar Gah and across other parts of Kashmir Valley – places once crowded with tourists on pony rides through forested trails and mountain routes - hundreds of handlers now sit idle beside their horses for hours, waiting for work that rarely comes. These places are either shut or out of bounds for the pony operators. Some don’t have the QR codes still, and many others don’t have the required licenses to carry on their trade.
The pony operators say that even places like Aru, which are still open to tourists, are sometimes shut as early as 3 PM, further dampening the prospects of both tourism and tourist operators.
With tourist arrivals down to 336,000 in January–April 2026 from 551,000 in the same period last year, a drop of nearly 40%, already the customer base of ponywallahs, like all tourism operators, has shrunk.
What the code carries
When scanned using widely available Apps such as Google Lens, each QR code displays the worker's name, parentage, home address, mobile number, Aadhaar number, registration number, operational route, and whether they have been police-verified. Codes are checked at security points on routes leading to upland tourist belts including Aru Valley, Betaab Valley and Chandanwari.
Pointing any phone's Google Lens at a pony handler's QR code, instantly flashes on the screen the pony operator’s name, home address, mobile number, Aadhaar number, and license number. No special App, or permission stands between his most sensitive personal details and anyone curious enough to scan.
Only workers with codes are permitted to move uphill. Those without are barred from those zones entirely.
Riyaz Ahmed (name changed), who has worked as a pony handler in Pahalgam for fifteen years and is a member of the local pony union, understands what the code reveals and how it makes him vulnerable to cyber-attacks, but carries it anyway. It is not an option, but the condition for work.
Before the attack, he said, there was no such regime. Workers were checked at two points and carried their passes even during the busy Amarnath Yatra season. "There was no need for one more pass," he said.
"We already had two or three passes with us at all times." Now the order is clear: no code, no access to the upland areas. "After the QR codes were issued, tourists started looking at us differently," Riyaz said. "Even though I am from Pahalgam, they now seem to question who I really am."
He holds a license and is permitted to bring one additional handler with him, but many others remain at home. "Who will take care of them and their families?" he asked. The privacy concern sits alongside the livelihood one.
"Anyone can scan it. Our Aadhaar number, license, contact details - they all become visible. There is a real risk that our data can leak and be misused later."
And yet he complies. "I personally don't support this system," he said. "But to secure my job, I have to go along with it. We live in a place where, if the administration orders us to drink poison, we are expected to do it."
Survival through patronage
Shahid Ahmed Khan, from Trel Mattan, has worked in Pahalgam for eight years. He has no license. But he continues to operate because he is attached to a senior local handler, Zahoor Ah. "Because I am with him, the system lets me continue," Shahid said.
Following the Baisaran attack, pony handlers from outside Pahalgam were banned from operating in the area altogether. Only locally based handlers are permitted to work, unless an outsider is attached to a local willing to share his license. The code system has, in effect, recreated a structure of patronage. Those without licenses survive only if someone above them vouches for them, and those without anyone to vouch for them do not work at all.
Shahid said he does not understand the logic of the system. "Pahalgam is a tourist place. Anyone can come and enjoy. If someone wants to go uphill, they should be able to. By issuing QR codes, the authorities are effectively stopping people and making them afraid to visit."
For handlers without a senior local behind them, he said, the situation is simple and harsh. "They are sitting at home, earning nothing. If this system is not removed, they will not be able to work here anymore."
Locked into a single identity
The system's reach extends beyond pony handlers. A taxi driver with five to six years in Pahalgam described a different but equally constraining trap. The QR code assigned to him identifies him as a cab driver - only a cab driver. "Once I have a QR code, I am expected to do only one thing - drive a cab," he said. "If I try to do anything else, I can be removed from the travel association of Pahalgam."
The inflexibility frightens him. "Kashmir is volatile. Anything can happen at any time. If tourism stops, what will I do?" Tourist flow in Pahalgam is currently low. He receives a booking once every three or four days and is running at a loss.
"On top of that, the QR code system is affecting my mental health. I keep thinking, what if something else happens? What if another attack occurs? What will I do then?" The code does not just identify him. It limits what he is permitted to become. "This system doesn't just threaten my privacy," he said. "It also limits my potential."
The scale of the loss
Abdul Wahid Bhat, general president of a local pony-handlers' association, oversees guidance for around 3,800 horses operated by union members. He said the stated purpose of the QR-code system is practical: to prevent workers from operating simultaneously in two roles, such as driving a taxi and handling ponies. But the consequences reach further than that intention.
The system may force many handlers and drivers to reduce the number of animals or vehicles they operate. A handler who owns two horses may be permitted to use only one; a cab driver may be restricted to a single vehicle.
"Many workers kept two horses or two cars to manage family expenses and vehicle costs," Bhat said. "This system will hit their income directly." He also expects that once tourists are formally instructed to scan QR codes before hiring a pony rider or cab driver, trust between workers and visitors will erode further, something that Riyaz Ahmed believes has already begun.
On the data, Bhat is candid about the union's position. "We know we are giving away sensitive information. It is possible that these numbers could be misused later. But we are following orders. If data is leaked, the administration will be the one responsible."
What experts say the code exposes
An IT official, speaking anonymously, said the design of the system carries an avoidable risk. Quick identification is the advantage; the danger is the volume of what a single scan reveals. "The numbers should flash masked after scanning," he said. "It's a digital space - we've seen breaches of high surveillance tech, and this is just a QR code."
A lawyer, also speaking anonymously, placed the concern in legal terms. "The problem is not tagging informal workers with QR codes containing private information; the issue is that it allows everyone, including scammers, access to that data. Privacy is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act provides checks and balances, enabling the state to be held accountable for data risk management."
Aware of all the livelihood and digital challenges the new system imposes on them, Riyaz Ahmed, Mohd Qasim, Shahid Ahmed Khan, and others have just one question: "Why only here in Pahalgam?"
(Names of some of the pony operators have been changed to protect their identity)
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