Mass exodus of migrant workers worries knitwear industry

Industrial units, too, didn’t anticipate the migration of workers to be on such a larger scale. “We expected the guest workers to rejoin once the industry opened up after lockdown. But their migration was unexpected. The industry would be in trouble for the coming weeks due to their migration,” said Raja M Shanmugam, president of Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA).

Industrialists opined that the central government should have evacuated them either before the lockdown or after the end of the first phase.

“It was the extension of lockdown that forced them into panic mode and kindled their desire to go home. Now everyone is looking to get back to their family as quickly as possible. Industries have also suggested normalising transportation at the earliest to facilitate their movement. And, there are migrants, who were held up in their home towns following their visit for Holi celebrations, wanting to come back to Tirupur for work," he added.

Industrialists also believe that migrant workers exiting Tirupur now will return in search of livelihood. From a few hundred’s until a decade back, the number of migrant workers setting foot in Tirupur surged in the last five years to about two lakh people now.

“However, the official count of migrant workers enumerated during the lockdown period is 1.3 lakh. Of them, almost 75 per cent of workers are in a mood to leave to their home towns. Only those provided with proper care by industrial units with accommodation and food may stay back. Their movement is sure to impact the knitwear industry, whereas it may take a couple of months to see the extent of the damage for the sector due to their absence,” said G Sampath, general secretary of CITU.

On realising their pivotal role, industrialists are making efforts to make migrant workers stay back in the district. “Industrialists have appealed to the migrant workers to stay back as the situation is slowly getting back to normal. District Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan also made an appeal in a video call,” said S Sakthivel, executive secretary of Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA)

About 2,704 migrant workers have left Tirupur by two trains operated to Bihar and 720 others by buses so far. “More trains will be operated in the coming days to Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and North East states to clear the rush,” said an official of the district administration.