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The staff strength at major ports across the country declined by more than one-third between 2001 and 2010.
According to an Assocham study – ‘Employment scenario at major, minor and intermediate ports in India’ – the total number of employees in different cadres came down from more than 83,700 to nearly 55,400 at 12 major ports during these ten years.
The study was conducted at the major ports of Chennai, Kochi (including dock labour board ), Ennore, JNPT, Kandla, Kolkata (including Haldia Dock Complex), Mormugao, Mumbai (including dock labour board ), New Mangalore, Paradip, Tuticorin (including workers of cargo handling labour pool) and Visakhapatnam.
Mumbai saw the highest rate of decline (six per cent annually) as the number of employees went down from about 23,800 in 2001 to a little more than 14,000 in 2010, the study said.
Employee strength at Tuticorin port declined from more than 3,700 to nearly 2,200 followed by Kolkata port where the number of employees dropped from nearly 14,600 to about 9,100.
This apart, Chennai port saw the number of employees coming down from 12,250 to about 8,000.
While Paradip, Mormugao, New Mangalore and Kochi ports witnessed 3-4 per cent drop each year, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kandla and Visakhapatnam ports saw marginal decline in the employee strength, the study pointed out.
The number of employees at Ennore port, however, increased to 86 in 2010 from 15 in 2001.
The minor and intermediate ports in Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu also witnessed nearly four per cent decline annually between 2001 and 2009. The figure dropped from more than 4,400 to about 3,200.
Dock workers
Meanwhile, the number of dock workers registered with the Dock Labour Board at major ports of Chennai, Kochi, Kandla, Kolkata, Mormugao, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam also went down from 6,800 to less than 1,500 between 2001 and 2010, registering a 16 per cent drop on an annual basis.
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