Surat, the country’s biggest man-made fabric industry is going through acute labour shortage at its weaving units. At the time when several small weaving units were finding it difficult carry on operations, the yarn manufacturers have increased the prices of polyester filament yarn and other yarn qualities by almost Rs 6 per kg in the last fortnight, putting the weaving sector of Surat in double pressure.

At present, nearly 70 per cent of the total 6,000 units have stopped operating night shift due to the shortage of workers as almost 40 percent of the migrant workers from Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh employed in the weaving industry have gone to their hometowns during the Holi festival and would be returning back to work after the election are done.

Moreover, the anti-social elements in the industrial areas like Udhna, Bhatar, Bhestan and Unn forced the closure of more than 8,000 weaving units, demanding wage hike.

Weavers, on one side are not able to run the unit due to shortage in workers while on the other hand, they are struggling to deal with the production cost due to increase in the yarn prices

The production of unfinished fabric has reduced to almost half from 3 crore per day to just 1.5 crore meter due to the shortage of workers and is likely to further see decrease in production in the coming days with the rise in the yarn prices.

However, the demand for finished fabric is increasing, but they are unable to deliver due to workers shortage and increase in yarn prices coming in at the time. If this continues longer, small weaving units will be left with no alternative than to close down.