Firms make efforts to bring back migrants, restart work

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), a Hyderabad-based construction company, has brought back about 1,000 workers, who had returned to their villages in Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh during the lockdown enforced on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The builder paid the workers’ train fare to resume construction work on the Polavaram multi-purpose project on the Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district, company officials said on Tuesday. Some 1,800 more workers will be brought back soon, they said.

Over 3,000 migrant workers had left the company and returned to their home states in the exodus of workers that followed the lockdown, MEIL general manager Satish Angana said.

“Till now, around 1,000 workers had been ferried back to Andhra Pradesh through Shramik Special trains at the company’s expense. Another 1,800 workers are expected to be brought back shortly,” said another company executive, who didn’t want to be named.

Angana said all the returnees had been tested at special medical camps for Covid-19 and before returning to work

As the central and state governments battle to revive a stalled national economy and restart industrial activity, companies like Megha Engineering are being proactive in bringing back workers who had returned to their home states fearing a loss of work and wages.The Centre informed the Supreme Court last week that close to 10 million workers had been sent back to their homes on Shramik Special trains that started from May 1.

Employers need the workers, especially the skilled ones, to restart work, and haven’t stinted from offering them higher wages, better working conditions and paying their train -- even flight -- fares to bring them back.

The trend, backed by anecdotal evidence of workers returning to cities like Mumbai, illustrates, too, the vital role played by migrant labour from states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal in keeping the economy running in economically better-off states in southern and western India.

Bangalore-based real estate developer Prestige Group has flown 10 carpenters from Patna to Hyderabad where it has launched a big real estate project.

“One of our contractors booked flight tickets for these 10 carpenters from Patna to Hyderabad. We have to complete the projects before the deadline fixed by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority and deliver the flats to the customers,” a senior vice-president of Prestige Group told a news agency.

Bobby Jindal, owner of Balaji Processors, a blanket maker based in Punjab’s Ludhiana, brought back seven of his master craftsmen by flights from Patna.

“I was left with less than 50 workers at my unit which adversely affected production. I booked air tickets for seven master workers who took a flight from Patna to Delhi and then from Delhi to Sahnewal Airport in Ludhiana last week,” Jindal said, adding that he had also arranged two taxis and booked train tickets for some other workers who left Balaji Processors. “I have spent Rs 2 lakh on bringing 50 workers back in the last few days.”

Rahul Verma, who runs a manufacturing unit Ludhiana, brought back five skilled workers back from Bihar who were needed in the casting unit. “For some other workers, I have booked their tickets and paid them to return,” he said.

In Rajasthan, from where workers go to other states looking for work, some industry owners have offered to arrange transport for workers to return.

Sunil Jain, president of the Rajasthan chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), said the real estate and construction sector had been hit with a 30 to 40% shortage of workers because of the exodus. Most workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

“I know of some real estate firms that are trying to get labourers back through contractors. Contractors are in touch with the workers and are convincing them to return, assuring them that they will get full work and wages. A few have even sent vehicles to ferry workers back and promised higher wages,” he said.

Garment exporters in Rajasthan have been confronting a 70% shortage of labourers and problems in meeting the delivery deadlines, said Aseem Kumar, general secretary of the Garment Exporters Association of Rajasthan.

“Some units have offered a 50% increase in wages to deliver pending orders. They are offering higher wages, accommodation and even promising work for the whole year but labourers are not ready to return,” he said. Most of the garment exports from Rajasthan are destined for Japan, the US, Europe and South America.

Charanjit Singh Vishwakarma, former president of United Cycle Parts Manufacturers Association (UCPMA) in Ludhiana, said he had already sent money to three of his labour contractors in Bihar to bring back workers. )

“As trains have not fully resumed, the workers are finding it difficult to get confirmed tickets to come via train. The government should restart Shramik trains to bring them back,” he said.

“Some factory owners have also offered a higher salary for workers returning immediately. They are also paying for their train tickets,” Tarsem Jodhan, president of the Punjab Mazdoor Union.

To revive industrial production in the state, the Punjab government last week sent two buses to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to bring back workers. “I have arranged buses to bring back workers to industrial towns,” said Punjab industries minister Sham Sunder Arora after a meeting with industrialists in Ludhiana last Friday.

The Rajasthan government has offered to help industry in getting workers back from other states, provided employers bear the cost of their transport. Labour secretary Niraj K Pawan said, “If industry provides us details of districts from which they want the labourers back, we will coordinate with those states and facilitate the transport of the workers.”