Migration sparks workforce shortage in industry

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, May 22

The migration of workers to their native places has created a shortage of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers in Karnal’s industrial sector.

The industries dealing in pharmaceuticals, agricultural implements, rice and print and packaging are the worst hit. In the absence of manpower, these are facing problems in delivering orders on time.

Industrialists say around 25% of the workforce has gone to their native places, hitting the production. They are approaching local labour for work, but to no avail.

There are around 300 rice mills, including around 100 exporters, giving jobs to over 40,000 workers. The exporters are worried overtimely delivery to various countries.

There are around 100 agricultural implement units in the district, providing jobs to around 3,500 persons. Industrialists say they are getting orders, but lack of manpower has become a hurdle in smooth operations.

“The lockdown has badly affected the industry. A number of workers have gone to their native places. We need extra manpower in the sowing season, but migration has added to our woes. We have approached local contractors, but they are unable to provide labour,” said Ravinder Dhall, president, Karnal Agricultural Implements Manufacturers’ Association (KAIMA).

Som Sachdeva, patron of KAIMA, said they had approached the GM of the District Industries Centre (DIC) and the ITI Principal, but to no avail. “We have now contacted the District Employment Officer to provide labour to meet the demand of agricultural implement industry,” he added.

“Migration of labour has hit the pharmaceutical industry. We are getting orders, but are unable to meet the demand in the absence of labour,” said RL Sharma, chairman, Karnal unit, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Anil Kumar, GM, DIC, said around 25% workers had migrated back due to which production at several industries had been affected.