Rakesh and Sandeep have decided to support the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Punjab elections. The reason? Both of them lost their jobs due to demonetisation and blame the NDA for their plight. Both were workers at different garment factories in Ludhiana and were laid off following the currency ban. The twenty-somethings now work with a mobile service provider.
“There were 21 workers in my shift at the factory. The management retrenched 12 of us. Nine workers, who are senior people with families to support, have been retained. Six of us got work. The remaining are still looking for jobs,” says Rakesh, whose family has traditionally supported the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Trilochan Singh, who owns a small factory that supplies hardware to cycle factories, says he hasn’t been able to open his factory for more than a month. “There is no cash in the banks. How will I pay my workers? The BJP will be punished for what they have done to us,” he said.
Ajaya Mahajan, Chairman of Jalandhar’s Sports Goods Manufacturing and Exporters Association, also feels that governmental support for such traditional export-oriented industries of Punjab should have been raised.
“Demonetisation has created hurdles in payments. The Centre stopped certain subsidies offered to us after the 2008 recession. The State government, too, has failed to fulfil its promise of compensation for transporting export goods to Mumbai,” Mahajan said.
Down, but not out And while export-oriented factories in these three towns have not been closed there has been a cut in the working hours of labourers.
“Big factories have already switched to cheque or online payments. Small factories will have to do that in due course. But the losses they suffered in the past two months are irreparable,” say Manmohan Singh and Vinod Ghai, who work in a hosiery units. Both have been working in Ludhiana for the past 40 years. “Eighty per cent of the local units that cater to domestic markets are shut. We do not have any unions. Workers are in dire straits,” they add.
Akalis on the defensive SAD leaders have been trying hard to explain to their supporters that their party had nothing to do with demonetisation. “It was the Centre’s decision. But we are paying for it,” says Gurcharan Singh, an SAD activist in Ludhiana.
Some trade unions in the area feel this will be the worst election for the BJP in the State.
“Demonetisation is creating reverse migration. Peasants and workers are unhappy with the governments in the State and at the Centre. They are looking for an alternative,” says the Centre of Indian Trade Union’s Punjab unit Secretary Raghunath Singh.
Punjab’s industrial belt, consisting of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, will take time to recover from the losses, he says. “I am not sure if small industries and workers of lower income group will recover at all,” he adds.