Migrant worker exodus puts India's factories into crisis

In India an acute shortage of workers has forced thousands of factories struggling to restart after an exodus of migrant workers during the virus lockdown. Covid pandemic in India was followed by large scale migration of not only industrial workers but also the labourers from cities to their home town. 

In May, last month, the people saw a big choas on road as one would see workers and low income group people moving on foot, cycles, trucks or the government arranged trains and buses from the more affected areas such as Noida, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Faridabad, New Delhi, Mumbai and other industrial towns. After 31st May when government relaxed lockdown and allow economic activities to reopen, industries or manufacturers were without enough workers to man the economic activities.

India is slowly emerging from strict containment measures imposed in late March as leaders look to revive the battered economy, but manufacturers do not have enough workers to man the machinery. The big cities - once an attractive destination for workers from poor, rural regions - have been hit by reverse migration as millions of labourers returned to their far-flung villages, some uncertain if they will ever go back.