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Bengal govt to review proposal for women on night shift in jute mills
The jute industry in West Bengal is facing a manpower shortage following the exodus of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Mamata Banerjee’s government will review an appeal by Bengal’s jute mill owners to allow women to work on night shifts and let mills employ temporary workers without provident fund for six months, the state’s labour minister Moloy Ghatak said Wednesday.
The appeal came as the jute industry ran into manpower shortage following the exodus of workers from states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh during the lockdown.
If the government allows it, it will mean that women will be working at night in Bengal’s jute mills for the first time. Bengal is the highest producer of jute in the country. In neighbouring Bangladesh, women constitute around 18 per cent of the workforce in jute mills.
On May 29, chief minister Mamata Banerjee allowed the 59 operational jute mills in Bengal to start production with 100 per cent manpower from June 1. A day later, Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA), the apex business chamber for India’s jute industry, requested labour minister Moloy Ghatak to let women work at night and allow employment of temporary workers without provident fund for six months.
“A lot of people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh etc have returned home, leading to staff shortage. On the other hand, a large number of migrant workers from Bengal have come back. They need jobs. If the government agrees to our proposals this crisis can be turned into a win-win situation for many unemployed people,” R K Poddar, a senior member of IJMA, told HT.
“We will review the appeals and a committee will look into this. Earlier, we allowed two industries, including a soft drink giant, to let women work at night,” labour minister Moloy Ghatak told HT. “As far as letting temporary workers work without provident fund is concerned, the industry has said their money will be transferred to bank accounts. We will review this,” the minister added.
On May 29, Bhaskar Khulbe, an advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wrote to Bengal’s chief secretary Rajiva Sinha. “I would request you to kindly consider assisting the jute mills in reaching the assured production of 10,000 bales per day as early as possible and definitely by June 15. We shall appreciate your feedback by June 4 to enable us to further review the matter on June 8,” said the letter from PMO.
Since April, the Centre has been urging the Bengal government to direct jute mills to resume operation in view of shortage of jute bags in food grain producing states. In one of the letters, the Centre said, “…packaging material like jute bales are immensely required by major procuring states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madya Pradesh.”
On April 5, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao requested the Prime Minister to open jute bag manufacturing units in Bengal and ensure transportation of jute bags through special goods trains to his state.
Till May 29, however, Bengal allowed deployment of only 50 per cent manpower in most of the mills. The jute industry suffered a nationwide loss of ₹1,250 crore during the lockdown.
