News: Reeling from Covid-19 lockdown, factories are ready to gradually restart. But where are the workers?-04-05-2020

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/reeling-from-covid-19-lockdown-factories-are-ready-to-gradually-restart-but-where-are-the-workers/articleshow/75527175.cms

Updated On: May 04, 2020

Reeling from Covid-19 lockdown, factories are ready to gradually restart. But where are the workers?

 

As Indian manufacturing gets ready to fire up its forges and crank up its machinery again, Hari Om, a migrant daily wager from the Noida Hosiery Complex, has completed his over 1000 km long walk back to his village in Gaya, Bihar.

Struck by the lockdown’s fallouts, Om and his family are not the only ones who have made the long trek back to where they belong. In recent days, visuals of scores of migrant workers leaving various major industrial hotspots of the country have been a regular occurrence. A sizable section of the county’s 471-million workforce comprises the daily wage earners and contract labourers. In the wake of the nationwide lockdown, as factories and plants got shuttered down, many workers were left to fend for themselves.

Ironically, despite the repeated assurances by various state governments and different industry bodies, the workers' exodus has only been increasing. With different states and Indian Railways now starting special trains for migrant workers, the floodgates have been opened.

With some relaxations in lockdown kicking in from May 4, India Inc largely remains on edge. Even if industries open, would there be enough workers to keep the machines running?

According to Manish Bansal, Director and CEO of Window Magic, in these uncertain times, everyone wants to be with their family. Basal is a manufacturer of uPVC windows and doors, based out of the capital city and he contends that no amount of motivation can help reverse the exodus or workers. In fact, Bansal says the exodus has broken a myth he long harboured.

Taken aback by the troubling fact that more than 90% of his firm’s manpower has gone back to native places, he says, “Before the lockdown, we operated under a myth that more than 60 -70% of our manpower are locally based, but I was wrong. Today, our senior staff -- even those owning houses and living here for more than a decade, preferred to be with their extended family members in hometowns.”

Such a large scale exodus has now left many manufacturers like Bansal in the lurch. Adding to firms’ miseries, if experts are to be believed, there isn't any end to this trend in the immediate future.
According to Rajeev Singh, Partner, Deloitte India, workers' emotional connect with their family members outweigh their inclination towards the livelihood at this point in time, and this very reason will fuel more exodus in coming times.

“So far, there has only been a partial labour’s exodus, and I sense that as and when migrant labourers are facilitated to return to their home towns, they would do so as a priority, least for a few days or weeks, before rejoining any work in cities,” believes Singh. He, therefore, envisions a spike in the labour movement across states, post May 4, at least for a few days.

Experts are of the view that the economic fallout of the Covid will haunt Indian manufacturing space for a long time to come. Among India Inc, it's the MSME sector where the bulk of employment and manufacturing takes place. This is also the segment heavily dependent on the migrant workforce, flag experts.

Luring back the workers, a challenge
Workers’ exodus has come as a double whammy to many Covid-hit Indian sectors that were already reeling under a slowing economy. Take for example, the country’s textile and apparel sector, which accounts for 10% of the country’s manufacturing production, 5% of the country's GDP, and 13% of its export earnings. This is the segment that saw a large scale exodus of workers from its various manufacturing hotspots such as Delhi-NCR, Tirupur, Surat, Ludhiana, among others.

“Neither I have an answer now, nor I know how these workers can be convinced to return,”remarks KL Magu, Managing Director of Delhi-based Jyoti Apparels. He adds that even if some of them do decide to return, it's going to take a long time for factories to get their production to reach pre-crisis levels.

Suggesting a solution to mitigate the precarious situation, Rajendra Agarwal, Managing Director, Donear Industries Ltd asserts that India needs to take a leaf out of China’s book here.

With an economy that’s hugely export dependent, thereby manpower driven, the neighbouring country, had allowed industries to operate in a controlled environment. India could as well employ such a strategy to persuade its critical migrant workforce, feels Agarwal.

In India, the Punjab government has recently allowed select industrial units to commence operations, provided they ensure strict adherence to guidelines on Covid-19, including norms on social distancing. The government too, while announcing the second phase of the 21 day lockdown, underscored the need for livelihood in a ‘locked-in’ India. Increasingly, experts have also highlighted that for a large number of sectors dependent on migrant workers, life itself matters less without opportunities of of livelihoods.

Agarwal further maintains that while many Indian SMEs may not currently have the wherewithal to execute such a strategy, even if some of the manufacturing firms can start their production with even 50% capacity and 25-30% workforce, then the move itself will be a persuasive message to all the migrant workers that things are returning to normal. “If this model can work in Punjab then that’s the model to be followed across sectors and at other places,” he suggests.

Absenteeism to be rampant
With widespread shuttering down of factories and plants across the length and breadth of the country, it is feared that post lifting of the lockdown, firms may have to run manufacturing plants with a higher level of absenteeism, a trend noticed in post lockdown China.“The pattern we noticed in Wuhan province was that in the first few weeks absenteeism was as high as 60-70%. Gradually, that absenteeism went down. While building roadmap beyond May 3, manufacturing plants in India, thus need to keep this fact into account too,” says Singh. He adds that he would not be surprised if sectors traditionally dependent on migrant workers witness high absenteeism in the first few weeks post lockdown.
“Post lockdown, one thing businesses will be required to do is to come up with clear cut guidelines on how they will implement social distancing besides meeting workers’ basic needs,” Singh says, adding this single factor can significantly reduce workers’ safety concerns, leading to reduced absenteeism.