80% MSMES in Sonipat hub await their turn to open
The first of a five-part series captures the restlessness of workers in Haryana’s industrial clusters struggling to restart operations
The Kundli industrial area on the Delhi-sonipat border, which houses more than 800 medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMES), is still eerily quiet. Even after relaxation in lockdown norms and factories being permitted to swing back into action, more than 80 per cent of the units are shut. And those that are open, are working at sub-optimal pace.
Standing outside a plastic packaging unit, Ritu, her face halfcovered with dupatta, waits her turn so that her temperature can be checked, after which she will go through a sanitization process at the entry gate. All the factories that have opened up have similar exercises going on during the morning hours.
Ritu is back at work after two months. Did she get her salary during this time? “A portion only, just enough to make ends
meet,” she says, quickly scurrying inside.
Others were not so lucky. In the Gaunder labour colony in Kundli, workers are agitated. They have not been
paid for two months, and neither have they received any government rations.
“We were not paid wages. The government supply also did not reach us.
The only saving grace is that we did not have to pay rent,” says Shrinath, 36, who lives in the colony.
Srinath and and his co-workers are now being asked to work 12 hours per day for the same wage as before. Before the lockdown, they were paid ~8,000-9,000 a month for nine hours of work per day.
Sprawled across 1,200 acres, the Kundli industrial area manufactures readymade garments, utensils, metal components, plastic packaging, textiles and allied products.
It is most famous for its stainless steel, and this industry alone employs close to 200,000 people here.
But the once bustling manufacturing hub is a ghost of its former self.
It’s not just that many units are yet to open; discontent festers in the labour colonies with overflowing drains, closebuilt quarters and shared toilets.
The only ‘social distancing’ that the labour know about here is that the factories are to work with 40-50 per cent man power at any given time, thereby cutting into their employment opportunities. “Look at my factory floor. Do you think my 175 workers can work together and still maintain one meter distance,” asks the owner of a factory that makes packaging for medicines and is working with about 50 people now.
“The demand is tepid now, so we can manage with less production and people. But when demand improves, it will be difficult to adhere to social distancing guidelines. It is easy for policymakers to ask us to have shifts and rotation of employees, but these rules are difficult to execute,” he says.
Subhash Gupta, chairman of the Kundli Industrial Area, says it is contradictory on the part of the government to send labour back home while asking industries to restart operations. “The government is offering us loans. We do not need loans. We need infrastructure — better roads and electricity at reasonable costs,” says Gupta, adding that the loan scheme is to help the “big guys, not smaller industries.” The call for “Vocal for Local” and indigenous products would be possible only when industry is supported through low-cost infrastructure, he adds.
Gupta reveals that only two out of 10 factory owners can come to their units now, since most of them live in Delhi and the Haryana government is not issuing more than a one pass per week per person. About 8 km away, in the Rai industrial estate, the number of factories that have opened up are fewer than that in Kundli. Rai has close to 800 units, mostly involved in food processing, printing, packaging, machines and equipment, auto parts, among others.