{"id":53208,"date":"2024-05-18T00:15:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/18\/most-indian-cities-reeling-from-labour-crisis-in-election-season\/"},"modified":"2024-05-18T00:15:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:15:43","slug":"most-indian-cities-reeling-from-labour-crisis-in-election-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/18\/most-indian-cities-reeling-from-labour-crisis-in-election-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Indian cities reeling from labour crisis in election season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mumbai: Late last month, staffing company Quess Corp<\/a> flew about 100 unorganised workers from Bihar and Jharkhand to meet an urgent demand for manpower<\/a> from a multinational client in Hyderabad, because it couldn\u2019t find enough workers in the southern city.<\/p>\n

Most Indian cities are facing a labour crisis<\/a> in this scorching summer<\/a> of elections as scores of migrant workers<\/a> have gone back to their villages where they are earning more from election-related work.<\/p>\n

The second-longest Lok Sabha elections in the history of the nation spanning 44 days have thrown up a slew of handsome and instant earning opportunities for migrant workers back home, from attending election rallies<\/a> and door-to-door pamphlet distribution to tenting, vehicle business, catering and food supply.<\/p>\n

Take the case of Ajay Singh, 30, from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh who was earning Rs 14,000 a month working at a DMart store in a Mumbai suburb. Now, he is making Rs 800-1,000 per day attending rallies of various political parties<\/a> back home in UP.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am earning about Rs 22,000-24,000 a month by just going to rallies,\u201d Singh told ET. \u201cAll political parties need to gather a crowd.\u201d He is busy attending the poll campaigns of different parties \u2013 BJP, SP, Congress, BSP \u2013 on different days and does not plan to return to his Mumbai job till the elections are over.UP, Bihar and West Bengal \u2014 which are among the largest suppliers of migrant workers in the country \u2014 are the only three states where the elections are being held in all seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. This has led to an acute shortage<\/a> of workers in migrant-dependent states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi-NCR.\u201cWe are booking coaches in trains and flight tickets to meet our clients\u2019 demand for manpower but a lot of the migrants \u2014 mostly from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal \u2014 want to stay in their hometowns and make full use of the election season<\/a>,\u201d said Lohit Bhatia, president of workforce<\/a> management at Quess Corp.Many companies are going all out to attract workers by offering attractive perks such as taking care of their accommodation, food, and travel. \u201cDue to extreme heat and summer conditions, along with elections in various states \u2014 where financial incentives around temporary roles have significantly engaged local populations \u2014 intra-state availability of migrants has temporarily dipped by 15% and interstate by 22%,\u201d said Kartik Narayan, CEO, staffing, at TeamLease Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The shortage is felt across construction, manufacturing and services sectors for roles including machine operators, material handlers, welders, salespeople, service technicians, delivery and warehouse professionals, besides in facility management and food services, industry insiders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge shortage of people in the construction sector<\/a> that the entire industry is facing in various skill categories,\u201d said Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises<\/a>. \u201cWe are trying to identify skillsets, train people, and generate a versatile workforc.,\u201d Industry insiders expect the shortage situation to last until the end of June.<\/p>\n

It is true at least in the case of Neeraj Kumar who was until a couple of months ago working as a picker and packer for Swiggy in Faridabad and is now back in his hometown Ballia in UP. He does not plan to return to the city in search of a job till July. \u201cI am attending rallies for political parties. I go in the morning at 8 am or 9 am and we are done by 4:30 pm. We are also given food \u2014 usually biryani, soft drink, chai and samosas,\u201d said Kumar, who was earning Rs 16,000 a month at Swiggy. \u201cIn village now, I earn about Rs 22,000 a month and I manage to save the whole amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alok Kumar, president \u2013 manpower at ManpowerGroup India<\/a>, said labour<\/a> demand from political parties for their campaigns has created a gap in the supply of migrant labourers and blue-collar casual workers. \u201cThe employers are patiently waiting for the elections to get over and trying to cope with the gaps,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

SUMMER BLUES
<\/strong>Companies across sectors experience a labour crunch every summer as many leave for their villages for sowing and in the wedding season. However, this year has proved a much bigger challenge due to the lengthy election<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually in the summer season, many of the migrants go home. However, this year the political rallies that are attracting people in certain pockets may be accentuating the shortage in the labour market,\u201d said Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of Hiranandani Group<\/a>. \u201cOur total labour dip is around 10%,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Larsen & Toubro has seen a 10-15% depletion in labour strength across projects in recent months. The engineering company has now deputed teams to villages across some eastern and northeastern states to re-mobilise labour. \u201cThis year, the movement has been slightly more because of the elections,\u201d an L&T spokesperson said. \u201cWe expect the situation to stabilise by the second week of June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quess has started interactive job spots with counselling rooms at the bus stops of some of the largest industrial hubs such as Hosur, Chakan, outskirts of Pune, Krishnagiri, Noida, Tirupur, Sri City, and Narasapura to hire talent as soon as they land.<\/p>\n

While large companies are trying to attract talent through various incentives, there are thousands of smaller firms that are in a spot.<\/p>\n

(Additional reporting by Suryash Kumar in New Delhi)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Mumbai: Late last month, staffing company Quess Corp flew about 100 unorganised workers from Bihar and Jharkhand to meet an urgent demand for manpower from a multinational client in Hyderabad, because it couldn\u2019t find enough workers in the southern city. Most Indian cities are facing a labour crisis in this scorching summer of elections as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-42031747\/et-logo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[9415,52866,734,50,20855,7738,1025,843,52863,52867,3496,52865,52869,52864,1833,33805,1150,14367,52870,8876,11000,8971,52868,11325],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53210,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53208\/revisions\/53210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}