CHENNAI: Small and micro industries in Guindy and Ambattur are struggling to survive by keeping their units open during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to meet stringent deadlines and ensure they deliver their orders on time.
With many of the employees testing positive and the workforce declining, deadlines are not being met and they risk being blacklisted by larger companies who have given them orders.
"Small industries are a vulnerable lot and with the rise in cases in the second wave of the pandemic and migrant workers fleeing, it is difficult to meet deadlines," says T V Hariharan, president of Chennai District Small Scale Industries Association.
It is learnt that industrial estates in Guindy and Ambattur are running with only 30 to 40 per cent of the workforce putting enormous pressure on owners of the small scale industries to meet their deadlines.
S Anburajan, president of Tamil Nadu Small and Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA), the apex body of MSME associations of the state, says it is not only the workforce but also the lack of raw materials which is impacting small scale industries. While the government has put a clamp on oxygen for industrial purposes, it has impacted many industries that are dependent on it. Anburajan says it has impacted small industries who are engaged in metal fabrication, automotive components, shipbreaking, paper and engineering.
"We are fearing penalty clauses invoked by automobile manufacturers and power companies who have offered us contracts. Many companies fear they could also be blacklisted," he says.
Nearly 40 per cent of small scale industries are closed, says Anburajan. Nobody has accurate data on how small scale industries fared during the lockdown, says Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association President K V Kanakambaram. He says that the government has been ignoring the plight of small and micro industries.
This has been echoed by V S Narasimhan, past president of TANSTIA. He says small and micro industries are finding it difficult to make the Union government understand their plight. "The focus of the government is on medium and large industries. With no government support amid the second wave of the pandemic, the spirit of entrepreneurship will be killed," he says.
He says that small and micro industries are the lifeline for the workforce as it is for agriculture. "The government rather offering them loans again should waive off the debts incurred during the first lockdown and handhold these industries till the economy revives," says Narasimhan, who helped the government in formulating the credit guarantee scheme.
He alleged that the government is not looking at the plight of small scale industries and is instead catering to the interests of medium and large scale industries. He says the entire small scale industry was already hit by the first wave of the pandemic and they are now struggling further during the second wave. While many have kept their units open to ensure work orders are met, they are still in debt, he says.
The scene in many units is abysmal. Many workers have tested positive and would have to forgo their salaries. Some owners are generous enough to pay their bills but the question remains for how long and whether small and micro industries can withstand another economic upheaval.