Textile trading comes to a standstill in Surat amid second Covid-19 wave

The second wave of the pandemic has hit the medium- and small-scale sector like a tsunami. The first of a five-part series looks at the crisis

Since he lives locally, Harish Patel is one of the luckier migrant workers in Surat — in that his employer was able to squeeze in a single shift for him at the weaving unit in Kamrej in Gujarat — unlike others who went home for Holi and other festivals just as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was waxing and ended up stranded in local lockdowns.

Patel’s employer, Suresh Shekalia of Sandeep Textiles, did not have enough work to justify more shifts, but at least with one shift, Patel, 28, could earn something.

“Before the second wave, not only