A factory, the only one in Mayapuri Industrial Area- I which has been running, is of hospital essentials ensuring that the ones fighting at the forefront against the pandemic are well equipped. The factory — SLK Solutions — manufactures garbage bags, needle destroyers, sharp containers and mortuary sheets among other essentials for several hospitals including Apollo, AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, and other private hospitals.
Outside the factory, a number of documents have also been put up — including what the factory manufactures, permissions from the District Magistrate’s office and the government’s order mentioning that this factory falls under the category which is allowed to run.
The factory’s manager, Vinod, stepped out wearing a mask and head cap while giving instructions to a worker. He said that they had about 15-20 workers before the lockdown reduced the strength to four. In the initial days, reaching the office was hard, he said, sharing an incident in the early days of the lockdown.
Two workers, Ravi and Niranjan, were coming to work but were stopped and beaten up by the police. “They told them that they were working in a factory manufacturing essentials but they were roughed up,” he recollected.
Vinod said that after the incident, most of the workers left for their villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar leaving only four workers here. While the company is learning to work with a skeletal staff, they are staring at another hurdle — procuring raw materials.
Another hurdle
“The factories manufacturing raw materials for our production is not opening which is becoming a major problem for us. They are not considered essentials because they are manufacturing raw materials and we are manufacturing finished product, therefore, we got permission from the DM [District Magistrate] for the factory to run,” said factory owner Sanjay.
But the scarcity of raw materials has made their future production uncertain. “Because we are unable to procure as much raw materials as required, we are not sure how long we’ll be able to run the factory,” he said.
Talking about distribution to hospitals, he said that they have one vehicle to move around for distribution and have taken an e-pass for it. “The factory has been running every day without a miss because all the passes and permissions were sought immediately with manageable problems like minor delays,” he said.
Even the employees had to procure passes. “They live in the jhuggis close by but still e-passes were applied and were given,” he said. The workers weren’t allowed by the owner to speak to The Hindu as he claimed that the workload on them, in absence of others, is enough and “they can’t be disturbed”.
The workers are on a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. shift, due to the lack of employees, a reason the night shift was dropped. They get Sundays off. “The only day to quarantine for us,” as Vinod joked.
