Hit hard by the lockdown, much like other sectors, the footwear industry in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh, the hub of country’s non-leather footwear manufacturers with an annual turnover of around ₹18,000 crore, hoped to make the most of the resurgence of economic activity in the rural areas during the Rabi crop harvest season, but it fails to reap the benefits due to continued ban on transport of goods.
Though many wholesalers falling in the rural areas have the permission to operate and the shops in the villages, most of them multi-purpose selling groceries to agricultural products to footwears, are also open, the footwear manufactures in Bahadurgarh struggle to procure permission to transport their products. “During the harvest season, the slippers (chappals) are in high demand in the rural areas. We have finished goods lying in our godowns, but don’t have the permission to transport them,” said Narinder Chhikara, senior vice-president Bahadurgarh Footwear Park Association.
Though the manufactures have been allowed intra-State movement of their goods just two days back, the permission for the movement of goods outside the State remains elusive. Mr. Chhikara said the manufacturers had discussion with senior Union government Ministers, but no solution was found.
Spread across the industrial areas of Bahadurgarh, including the Footwear Park, around 1,000 footwear manufacturing units employ over two lakh workers, most of them migrant. Though Agra and Kanpur remain the hub for leather footwear, Bahadurgarh footwear manufacturers have around 50% share in the country’s non-leather footwear industry. It exports good worth around ₹2,000 crore annually.
Though a large number of workforce stays in Bahadurgarh, a small section is settled in Delhi’s Mundka and Nangloi areas as well.
Confederation of Indian Footwear Industries president Rajkumar Gupta said the national body of footwear manufacturers’ had decided not to resume operations post-April 20 and wait till May 3 since they could not operate with the supply chain not being functional. He said the manufacturers felt there was a little sense in resuming production when the wholesalers and the retailers were allowed to open and inter-State transport of goods was not allowed. “Ours is a labour-intensive industry and maintaining social distancing norms as per the Ministry of Home Affairs Standard Operating Procedures is also difficult. Even if we decide to open putting our lives and the lives of workers into risk, it is not worth since the supply chain is not functional,” said Mr. Gupta.
Knotty issue
The transportation of the workers also remains a knotty issue for the industry. Though the administration had earlier allowed the workers staying within a radius of 150 metres to come through their owns means, the limit has now been increased to five km after much persuasion. But the issues still remain.
