Chacko Varghese, 63, has been an employee of a small-scale fibre mat production unit at Aryad in Alappuzha for many years. He used to earn around ₹400 a day until April 2021, when the restrictions imposed by the government to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 forced the factory to shut operations temporarily.
“The past few weeks have been a nightmare. Besides becoming jobless and penniless, some of my family members contracted COVID-19. Our lives have turned upside down. With no cash, I find it hard to buy medicines for my wife who is a heart patient. We lived all these days on the food packets delivered by the grama panchayat,” he says.
Another coir worker, Baburaj, 66, of Pazhaveedu says he has never experienced an ordeal of this magnitude in his entire life. “COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions have prevented people like me from earning a living. The pandemic has made me indigent,” he says.
Products pile up
The pandemic has brought the coir industry, already going through a difficult patch, to its knees. It has robbed the livelihood of thousands of coir workers who depended on modest daily or weekly earnings.
Although the government has given its nod for the industry to restart operations, albeit with restrictions, coir products remain piled up at units due to cancellations of orders.
“We are facing a grim situation. Products worth ₹1.5 lakh are accumulated in my unit. We are allowed to restart operations, but there are hardly any orders for coir products. The government should intervene and initiate measures to procure coir products. If products continue to pile up, we will be forced to halt operations, which will push our employees further into poverty,” says Sunny C., owner of a small-scale fibre mat production unit at Komalapuram in the district.
