Lakhs of UP daily wagers lose jobs due to cash crisis

Agra, with its famed shoemaking industry, has been hit particularly hard. Close to two lakh daily labourers -half of the over 3.5 lakh people employed in 150 organised and over 5,000 unorganised shoemaking units -are out of work, with their employers unable to pay them in cash. Most don't have bank accounts.

A similar scenario haunts daily wagers in the city's petha-making units. Almost 90 per cent of the over 50,000 daily wagers employed in petha units have lost their jobs. More than 1,500 petha-making units operate in the city, with a combined capacity of 700-800 metric tonnes per day. With manufacturers short on orders, the turnover has fallen by 75 per cent from the Rs 1.5 crore per day recorded normally.

In the neighbouring Firozabad, around 90 of 300 glass factories and bangle-making units have downed shutters, leaving hundreds unemployed. The local glass industry has an annual turnover of Rs 1000-1200 crore.

The situation is so grim that even Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav took it up with PM Modi. In a letter, the CM drew Modi's attention to the plight of the workforce and requested him to relax rules to let them get their wages.

Rakesh Garg, national executive president of Laghu Udyog Bhartiya, India's largest MSME industry network, told TOI that some 30 per cent of 30 lakh daily wagers were jobless.