For eight years, Chitra, a daily wager at the National Textile Corporation’s (NTC) Vijayamohini mills here, had earned just enough to meet her family’s expenses. Now, for the past one year, the family of six has been depending on the old-age pensions of her parents.
When the NTC closed down its 23 spinning mills following the COVID-19-induced lockdown in March last year, Vijayamohini mills too downed its shutters and remained closed for more than one year.
When the mill reopened in March this year, temporary workers were not called back. It again closed for some weeks for quality check of the fibre raw material before reopening on June 1. But not even the permanent workers who had worked during the period have not been paid their salaries for the past two months, while more than 150 temporary workers remain forgotten.
“I used to get ₹427 for a day’s work. I was supposed to become a permanent worker in 2020, when the mill closed down due to COVID-19. We were told that we will be called back when there is work. But they have neither called us or paid anything,” Chithra says.
Daughters’ studies
Her husband, a daily wager, used to earn some money when there was work. But during the lockdown, even he can’t go out for work. Their daughters, aged 14 and 11, are now attending online classes. The entire family now survives on the welfare pensions that Chithra’s parents get.
“Even to recharge the phone for them to attend online classes, we need a few hundred rupees. From this year onwards, the younger daughter will also need a phone, but we have no money to buy one,” says Chithra.
The Vijayamohini mill is currently running much below capacity, as the raw material is also running out.
“There is only enough cotton to run the mill for 3-4 more days. The NTC has still not sent any raw material from Mumbai, citing paucity of funds,” says M.T.Antony, secretary of the Trivandrum Textile Workers' Union, affiliated to the CITU.