Tirupur: Tirupur knitwear industry started to grow exponentially after 1980s. Many people belonging to farming families in various villages of Tamil Nadu migrated to Tirupur relying on their labor. The demand for workers started to increase as the banners of ‘Job Wanted’ spread across the streets.
After 2005, the northern workers started coming. After 2010, they started coming in large numbers. People from more than 300 districts in India, starting with women workers from Kashmir, continue their lives as workers here. There are 10 thousand companies in Tirupur and about 5 to 6 lakh North State workers are involved in the knitwear industry.
In this case, due to issues like devaluation, GST, unstable yarn prices, orders going to competing countries, Corona, global economic stagnation, the Tirupur knitwear industry has experienced a gradual decline in the last few years.
Due to this, there is a situation where it is not possible to provide continuous employment to the workers in the knitwear factories. Also, there are rumors that the North State workers are being attacked. Due to such reasons, there has been an increase in the number of North State workers going back to their hometowns by train from Tirupur in the last few weeks.
Fears of workers: In this regard, North State workers say, “For the past few months, we have been continuously without work in our companies. Similarly, there is panic among the workers due to the spread of information about the danger to the North State workers. At the same time, there are also incidents of workers staying in hostels in knitwear companies being sent back to their hometowns due to lack of orders.
General Secretary of Banyan and General Workers’ Union G. Sampath told ‘Hindu Tamil Vektik’ reporter: Due to lack of continuous orders from the Banyan Export Company in Velampalayam, 150 northern workers are going to be sent to their hometowns in the coming week. Similarly, many companies have faced this situation due to lack of orders today. That means they can’t cope with only 2 or 3 days of work in a week.
Similarly, the companies have to maintain food, electricity and basic facilities for the workers staying in hostels, so they have to allocate a huge amount of money every month. It is difficult for companies to cope with this in today’s environment. Presently, the wage agreement is signed every 4 years.
Similarly, because of the increase in the number of contract workers and contractors in the industry, the workers are not getting any labor rights including ESI and PF.
Lowest Pay: Even under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a daily wage of Rs.281 is available today. But since banyan workers are getting paid less than that, there is a crisis of many workers leaving this industry today. It is the position of majority of the workers that no norms are followed under the Contractualization Act. This is what he said.
Tirupur Exporters Association President KM Subramanian said: Rumors against North Indians have been spreading through ‘Whats Up’ for the past few days. But such incidents did not happen in Tirupur. Police are also keeping a close watch. Any information about such rumor mongers and complaints can be approached at the District Administration Complaints Centre, Tirupur Exporters Association or the General Manager at the working establishment and contact the Human Resource Development Officer. No one should believe any rumor in the case of North State workers. This is what he said.