AHMEDABAD: The country had to undergo a lockdown to reduce the spread of corona virus. During this period, migrant laborers migrated from the cities in lakhs. The closed factories were reopened after the concession in lockdown. Although they are closed again, the factories are facing shortage of labor.
After the lockdown, 15 powerloom factories in Diamond Nagar, Surat have been closed for the last two days due to shortage of workers. There are about 1200 powerloom factories in the Laskana area. Most of the laborers come here to work from Odisha. According to official figures, more than 1.2 million migrant laborers working in the textile and diamond industry have gone back to their villages during the lockdown.
According to the report, Haribhai Katheria, vice-president of Laskana Diamond Nagar Industrial Estate, said, ‘About 15 percent of the factories started functioning after the first unlock. The factories were running from 8 am to 7 pm. In the last few days, 15 factories have to be closed due to shortage of workers.
Chetan Ramani, the owner of a textile factory, who had to close his factory on Wednesday due to shortage of labor, said, “before lockdown, there were 35 workers working in my factory. A laborer can handle six machines, while some may even handle eight depending on the quality of the fabric. When the factory reopened on 23 May, I had only four laborers left. He looked after about 35 loom machines. Now they too have returned to Odisha so I had to close the factory.
