Engineering units in Rajkot face labor shortage

Labour shortage seems to have gripped the Rajkot-based engineering units. Even as the engineering industry does not have enough work on hand, migrant labourers from other states have moved to their homeland, thereby posing a serious concern about the labout shortage.

"Monsoon had failed last year, therefore we did not have enough orders. This year monsoon appears to be good, but the industry has yet not come out of the slowdown. The biggest problem with the industry at present is labor shortage. We don't have enough skilled laborers," said Gokul Patel, president of Rajkot Engineering Association (REA).

There are more than 2,00,000 workers engaged with the engineering sector in Rajkot. Most of the workers in Rajkot came from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa.

"Most of them have been shifted back to their home town and are not willing to come back as they have found job opportunities closer to their home places," said Patel.

Industry experts cautioned about the worsening labour conditions and prepare itself for automation.

"Labor problem may increase in coming days. Those workers, who had come from agriculture background, are now going back to farms due to good monsoon this time. Industry has to prepare itself for more labor scarcity," said Dhansukhbhai Vora, president of Greater Rajkot Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GRCCI).

"Automation is the best way to tackle this problem. Small and medium companies have to work on decreasing labor in their units to bring down the dependence on labor," said Vora. Rajkot has over 4,000 small and medium scale engineering units that are connected with auto components manufacturing, foundry industries, machine tools, kitchenware, diesel engine and submersible pump production.