Nepalese labour shortage amid Covid curbs, strained ties upsets Himachal’s applecart
SHIMLA::THE Covid-19 pandemic has left apple growers of Himachal Pradesh struggling with challenges of high labour cost due to shortage and strict curbs. With apple picking underway in the lower hill areas of the state, orchard owners are scouting for skilled Nepalese workers, who form the backbone of the Rs 4,500-crore apple economy.
Apart from travel restrictions due to the pandemic, India’s strained relations with Nepal after the recent border dispute has hit the movement of labourers from the neighbouring country. Many Nepalese labourers working in orchards returned home amid the tension between India and
Nepal and those wanting to come back to earn a livelihood could not make it due to travel restrictions.
Somnath Jaishi, 42, from Nadda village in Nepal’s Accham district worked in an orchard in Rohru for six months a year but this time he could not make it back in time. “Initially, when I wanted to come, we were stopped by Indian border police and when we made another attempt, we were stopped by Nepalese police at Banbasaha,” he said over phone. Now that the Nepal government has eased travel restrictions, the stricter Covid-19 guidelines in Himachal Pradesh have made it tougher for both labourers and orchardists.
Earlier, the government allowed apple growers to quarantine labourers coming from outside the state in the orchard for 14 days. Now it has made institutional quarantine mandatory for labourers.
“What’s the fun when orchard owners have to make all the arrangements in institutions? Isn’t it better to allow them to be quarantined in orchards?” says Narendra
Chauhan, an apple grower from Kotkhai.
MORE THE DEMAND, HIGHER THE WAGES
Gyan Chand Thakur, an orchardist from Kullu, says, “Most of the labour available is local and from Mandi district. This time, there are no Nepalese labourers. We have no choice but to pay up to Rs 1,000 daily.”
Apple growers in Kotgarh region of Shimla district are also forced to spend more on wages. The few Nepalese workers available in the region are in high demand and asking for higher wages than previous years. The orchardists say labourers in the area are more interested in construction activities as they get paid better there.