Government Clusters To Create Renewed Hope For Businesses & Labour Force Post Lockdown
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit economies and human lives hard, with deaths, losses and socio-economic issues such as poverty and unemployment hitting the tabloid headlines. While national economies across the world also deal with challenges such as a severe drop in production, profits and trade, a double-edged sword has come to light in the form of ‘reverse migration’, where migrant labourers across India have been walking back home, literally, to their native places after losing their jobs or being asked to go on indefinite leave without pay.
While it has caused inevitable issues for migrants, in the long run this might play in their favour. Migrants have been an invisible but important backbone in the workforce of our country, constituting a major portion of informal employment. They mostly do not have access to financial and social security, and this weighs heavily during emergencies and crises such as now, as reported by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
India as a developing nation has always nurtured businesses and established them as rapidly as possible. It is true that metropolitan cities provide the most employment opportunities, but it is also a fact that these regions have reached their saturation point due to shortage of land for setting up of new factories and businesses, inadequate labour force due to reverse migration, fluctuating demand, coupled with attractive investment opportunities as well as improved infrastructure and connectivity in rural areas, among other factors. From this point onwards, the government has planned industrial changes at a large scale in rural and semi-rural areas that are open to development while easing restrictions in economic activities, which will improve not just the standard of living, but also localised production of raw materials and goods.
Reverse migration comes into play at this point. Considering that migrants have relocated from metropolitan cities to these tier-II and tier-III regions, they will be the first recipients of these offers. This will provide relief by not only improving their livelihood, but also creating job opportunities that are closer to their familial residence. This will enhance collective growth and development of the nation and generate employment and business opportunities progressively.
Presently, global companies from various industries such as electronics, FMCG, F&B, pharmaceutical, etc. are looking to invest in countries that have favourable business and labour laws as they shift away from China and look for new avenues for production and design. Fortunately, the Indian government has set a positive stage for businesses, particularly in terms of attracting foreign companies by easing the FDI approval process and safeguarding the interests of Indian firms as well by recently presenting the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan economic package.
Also, through initiatives like Skill India, Startup India, Digital India and Make in India, the government has taken several steps in the past few years in the direction of enhancing skill development, digital innovation and resource availability. All these factors, coupled with the setting up of business clusters in rural and semi-rural areas, will further boost local manufacturing and innovations in product and service development, which is a good sign for the Indian economy.
In this light, it is pertinent for companies to not only retain their workforce, but also attract new candidates so that they can cater to the renewed demand and rising production capacity. They have an opportunity to increase their acceptance of labour from local areas instead of sourcing them from far-off places, which has already proven to be an unstable model in the current crisis.
The importance of manpower cannot be undermined as India looks to become a global leader in manufacturing, and we as leaders must collectively look for solutions to work with the labour force and search for solutions that are sustainable in the long run. We must ensure socio-economic security for our workers in collaboration with the Central and State governments. This will ensure long-term growth for them, us and the economy as a whole, strengthening business and labour relationships as well as overall national growth.
