Missing workers, lack of orders land shawl industry in trouble

Ludhiana: India’s largest shawl manufacturing industry located in Ludhiana district has suffered a huge blow due to the exodus of migrant labourers, with 80% of them already off to their home states. This has also taken a toll on the business of traders in Amritsar, who could not go for order booking due to unavailability of samples from the makers.
According to the owners of shawl manufacturing units, absence of labourers is a huge setback for them at this time of the year, when sampling and order booking take place for delivery around Dusshera.Due to the labour problem, very few of them could make samples for supplying to the traders, who in turn book orders. Moreover, due to the travel restrictions, even the traders who were sent a few samples earlier could not travel to other states for booking orders.
Speaking to TOI, Hemant Abbi of Shri Ram Textiles said, “The situation is very bad for us, as we are left with only 20% of the labourers. The problem is primarily because we are yet to adopt modern techniques and high-tech machinery and are still dependant on the old ways of production, which require more labour.”
He further said, “In the last two months of lockdown, we didn’t have business of even a single rupee and it seems that in the coming months too, we will have to sit idle in the absence of orders.”
Arun Seth, a prominent shawl trader, said, “Normally, during the month of May, after getting samples from the manufacturers of Ludhiana, we get embroidery work done from specialists. After that we go for booking of orders all over the country, including far-off places like West Bengal, Orissa etc. The orders are delivered around Dusshera time directly by the manufacturers. But, due to the lockdown, situation is too bad this time. Travel restrictions have eased now, but we do not have samples from manufacturers to show to the customers and book orders.”
A prominent shawl manufacturer from Janakpuri, Damanjit Singh said, “The labour shortage has become a big headache for the shawl industry. We had never seen such a situation ever. It is our request to the state government that if it wants to save industries from shutting down, it should immediately do something to address this problem.”
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Shawl makers depend on traders
Thousands of micro and small shawl manufacturers of Ludhiana are dependent majorly on the traders from Amritsar and Kashmiri for sale of their products all over India. Small-time Ludhiana industrialists make shawls of different types, which are supplied to the traders based in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Panipat etc. Amritsar being a hub for shawl business, finishing of the product, including washing and embroidery work as per the demand of clients, takes place there. Besides, a large number of Kashmiri traders also throng Amritsar to buy these shawls and sell those all over India