Voices at Delhi furniture market: ‘Employers deserted us, on May 3 we’ll walk home’

“Malik phone nahi uthatha, paise nahi deta. Raat ko sota kaise hai bhagwan jaane (The employer doesn’t take our calls, doesn’t pay, how does he sleep at night?),” said Jainath, a bed maker.

The timber market has over 600 furniture shops, which deliver chairs, tables and beds across Delhi-NCR. It employs over 10,000 skilled workers, who spent months learning the craft. Many of them are from Bihar and had tried to leave Delhi during the first lockdown, but could not as most of the buses were bound for UP.

They earned between Rs 10,000–16,000 a month. However, they have spent their salary surviving the lockdown and now stand in queues outside an MCD school for hours waiting for food.

There is mass discontent against employers who have neither paid salaries nor extended any other help so they can tide over the crisis. Inside every timber godown, there is a call for action — they are all waiting for May 3, when the second lockdown period ends, promising that they will leave for their villages on foot.

Shesh Kumar (42), a machine operator earning Rs 12,000 a month, said his employer refused to answer his calls and the foreman paid him Rs 1,000. Now, even his neighbours refuse to lend him money. Taking out a Rs 5 coin from his pocket, Kumar said, “This is all I have left.”

Pawan Kumar (25) used to put pillow covers over cushions for a living and earn Rs 15,000 after working overtime, clocking 12 hours every day. With a family of 12 to support, he too said his employer did not pay him: “He picked up once and said the lockdown was for both of us.”

Vikas Kumar (18) makes chairs for a living and would earn between Rs 10,000–15,000 per month. He takes at least two days to make a chair and spends Rs 600 on raw materials. Before the lockdown, he worked for two weeks to finish an order of 60 chairs. “Now they are all unsold,” he said.

Rows upon rows of wooden planks outside godowns and houses of chair-makers tell the same story — how workers had procured their goods on credit and now have to deliver the money in three months.

Former vice-president of the New Timber Market Dealers’ Association, Shashi Aggarwal, explained, “The timber is sourced from various countries in Western Africa, Latin America and Malaysia. They are collected in Gujarat and sent to Delhi. We have taken letters of credit for procuring the wood and have to pay our supplier in three months. Even a partial lifting of lockdown will not save us. It will take six months for this market to revive.”

Outside a tea stall, Ganesh Gaur, a supervisor, buys tea for his workers. He works at a chair-making unit, earning Rs 450 for one chair. He procured a stock of wood, now lying outside his godown.

“We have to make 30 chairs for delivery once the lockdown ends. But we will not wait for that, we will leave on the first bus,” said Gaur.

Inside a timber godown, a group of chair and bed makers discuss the lockdown. They have two fans that have stopped working and sleep on their workstations next to a heap of wood shavings.

Sonu (22), a chair-maker, said: “Till we had money, we followed the lockdown. Now that there’s no money, how do you expect us to go on? On May 3, we will all walk.”