Manpower shortage may dampen the humming of Bengal’s jute mills

Facing the scarcity of raw materials and labourers owing to restrictions imposed to contain the covid breakout, the jute sector of West Bengal is grappling with an unprecedented crisis as five out of 16 mills are shut in four days.

The Jute industry is one of the old and significant export-oriented sectors in West Bengal on account of generating state revenue. There are many mills that were established during colonial times and they are still running inexorably at their fullest capacity.

But this time the second wave of the pandemic has thrashed the industry to an extent of closure as out of total major 16 mills, five have been closed down in the last four days mainly in the want of raw material and labourers. There are around 2.5 lakh labourers working at 60 odd jute mills in the state.

Delay in the payments of consignments, shortage of workers owing to lockdown restrictions has made it hard for mill owners to keep the businesses afloat in the wake of stagnation of the cash flow.

The association of stakeholders has urged the government to relax the 30 percent workforce norm as they are apprehensive of the complete closure if the situation persists.

Cover image by Socialdocumentary