Rajasthan government allows garment manufacturing to continue during state lockdown

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 12, 2021

The Rajasthan government has decided to allow garment manufacturing to continue during its 15-day lockdown.

“So far, we have not seen any disruption,” said Apparel Park Manufacturers Association secretary and exporter Hero Ravjani, ET Bureau reported. “The government’s decision to keep running the industry is a huge relief. With limited staff, we can manage 15 days but if it goes beyond that and we don’t have enough labour, it will start to have an impact.”
 
Many garment workers have left their jobs either to return to their homes either to celebrate Eid or due to pandemic fears as cases mount in the state.

“The fear of the fast-spreading pandemic has also been a reason for many workers living nearby areas of the industrial areas not reporting to duty,” said former Confederation of Indian Industry Rajasthan president, Dileep Baid, the Economic Times reported.

“Every value chain of production requires specially-skilled workers. If we miss workers engaged for one component, the whole process gets disturbed.”
 
The Rajasthan government is currently working on facilitating an e-pass system to enable workers to travel to and from work and continue their duties. The local government is working on making the process of generating e-passes more efficient than last year, it said.