In Surat fabric hub, labour exit adds to raw material crisis, production half

In India, Reliance is a major producer of pellets from crude oil. The others are local, small units.

Consequently, from around 6 crore metres of fabric a day per factory on an average, production is down to half. The number of migrant workers, largely from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, are down by nearly 8 lakh.

Ashok Vaishnav a yarn trader in Surat, says that a kilogram of pellets is needed to produce a kilo of yarn, “which is twisted and weaved to make fabric”. “Before the war, yarn was being sold for Rs 100 per kg, now the price is Rs 135-140 per kg. Also, there is a shortage of raw material. Our business has declined by 35-40%.”

Devesh Patel, a powerloom factory owner at Ved Road Industrial Society, says that he usually has one month’s stock of yarn, “around 5-6 tonnes”, to keep his 24 machines running. “We now have stocks for a week… If yarn becomes costlier, we will have to shut down.”

Mahendra Ramoliya, the Director of the Sachin Industrial Association and the owner of a weaving unit, says weavers have already “cut purchases” due to rising prices. Before the war started on February 28, crude oil was trading at between US $70-80 per barrel, which is up to US $115 now, he points out.

Further down the production line, workers are employed in dyeing and printing units, trading, as well as embellishment of fabric with embroidery, or rhinestones, sequins etc. A bulk of the labourers are employed in the powerloom segment, with nearly 6 lakh such units in Surat, followed by 2 lakh-odd embroidery units and around 400 dyeing and printing units. Production is hit at every stage.

The South Gujarat Textile Processing Association says it has increased the number of days off in a week from one to two, while textile bodies have cancelled night shifts.

At labourer colonies in Pandesara and Sachin areas of Surat, a silence prevails with many quarters empty, says Gulab Singh. He owns 30 rooms that he gives on rent to migrant workers in Pandesara.

Udhna railway station in Surat crowded with migrant textile workers headed home. (Express Photo)

South Gujarat Textile Processing Association president Jitu Vakhariya says the textile industry employs around 22 lakh people, of which 40% have gone home.

Sanjay Saraogi, the owner of Laxmipati Group and one of Surat’s leading textile barons, says that for big outfits like them, the bigger issue is labour crunch. “The price of yarn fluctuates regularly and mill owners know how to absorb it,” he explains.

To incentivise labourers to stay back, Saraogi adds, “we started a kitchen, where food is provided twice a day”. “Labourers are also allowed to take packed tiffins home. This has helped us a lot.”

Owner Sanjaybhai Sudhraniya of Racheshwar Textile Industries is facing a labour problem too. Of the 40 machines in his mill, only half are currently running. “We are running 20 of them, and shutting down two days a week. We have also started a community kitchen, but our labourers are still returning to their hometowns… Our daily production of fabric is down to 2 lakh metres from 4.50 lakh metres.”

On the prices of fabric, Sudhraniya adds: “From Rs 200 per kg, it is being sold at Rs 250-300 per kg. The buyers don’t want to pick it up at these rates… Selling at old rates is not economically viable.”

Summing up the dilemma, he says: “If a mill is kept operational, we face losses of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh daily, on power consumption and other expenses. If we don’t, the loss is around Rs 50,000… The weaving industry has switched to the ‘safe mode’ till the situation normalises”.

The rush home

Udhna Railway Station platforms are taken up by migrant labourers headed home, with many spending nights there. Others without tickets use their luggage to rest in long queues.

Extra forces have been deployed, with the numbers up from 50-odd personnel from Central and state railway police forces earlier to 250 now, says a railway police officer. “We allow passengers to board a train as per their seating, and once the general coach is full, hold them back far from the platform,” says the officer.

The Indian Express spoke to nearly 100 migrants waiting at the station, and all cited shortage of cooking gas as the reason they were going home.

Vishal Mohato (25), who works at Pratibha Dyeing and Printing Mill at Pandesara, is bound for Darbhanga, his home town. Eight of them stay in a rented house in Ganeshnagar colony of Pandesara and eat at a mess, he says. “But now shops are charging Rs 1,000 extra per LPG cylinder… if these are available. The couple who run the mess have closed it and we cannot afford restaurants or lodges,” says Mohato, adding that they have told the contractor to call them back when the situation normalises.

A textile mill machine operator, Bhimraj Pal (36) is going home to Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh with his wife and two kids. Pal works in a mill in Pandesara and the family lives in a rented quarter in Sachin GIDC. With no authorised gas connection, the family buys 5-kg LPG cylinders, refilling them for Rs 100 per kg.

Now the refilling charge is five times higher, he says, while a crackdown by the administration on the sale of LPG in the black has left them without a source. “For some days, I brought burnt coal ash from the mill and my wife used balls of it in a clay stove to cook our meals,” he says.

It is not just the trains that are going full. Deepak Singh, who runs Ayodhya Tours and Travels, says he is running thrice the number of buses he did earlier, at 15-20 a day. “We have also partnered with other travel firms to boost bus numbers,” he says.

Labour contractor Akhilesh Tiwari from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, who supplies workers to eight mills in Pandesara, says: “Over 2,000 labourers work under my contract in different factories. Half of them have left and the remaining are preparing to leave. Lockdown rumours are adding to the panic.”

Besides, Tiwari adds, the labourers are also aware of what’s happening. “They watch news on the war.”