Job prospects in TN will bring back migrants: Industrialists

According to B Muruganantham, president, Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA), several migrants, who got back to their hometowns, are interested in returning as they see only little scope for employment there, especially in parts of Bihar and Haryana. Apart from the local workforce, the MSMEs employed about 25 to 30 per cent of migrant labourers in Madurai.

It is high time government focus on bringing up development projects along Madurai –Thoothukudi corridor to overcome the crisis situation. Moreover, there’s a strong likelihood of some industrial investors from Europe, USA and Japan diverting their resources to India after the COVID-19 crisis from China, he added.

Further, the MADITSSIA president sought interest waiver on loans to recover as it would give a new ray of hope for manufacturers.

In Dindigul, textile mills, hotels and food products industries and paper mills guaranteed jobs to several thousands of migrant workers. About 50 to 70 per cent of workforce in these units was migrants. To keep them intact, food and shelter were provided by industrialists, but they preferred to go back, Meda A Balan, general secretary, Dindigul Chamber of Commerce said.

K Nehruprakash, president, Thoothukudi District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, said more than 60 per cent of workforce in construction industry, shipping, spinning mills, ginning factories and ice factories were migrant workers. Of the 9,000 migrant workers here, over 5,000 of them went back to their native places, so far.

Further, he feared that the declining rate of migrant workforce could force employers to become employees in coming days. “If Tasmac shops and 100 days of guaranteed wage employment do not exist in Tamil Nadu, there will not be a demand for migrant workers here,” he said.

As for Gunasingh Chelladurai, president, Tirunelveli Chamber of Commerce, there’s hardly a substitute for migrant labourers, who were engaged in menial jobs. The stakeholders are now finding it difficult to get an alternative.