The jeans industry from Ballari has been hit terribly by the Covid lockdown imposed in the state since last year. As the second wave of Covid has hit many countries worldwide, the demand for the Jeans factory has gone down in meantime.
Ballari jeans industries have been exporting to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana states due to their high quality and affordability for middle-class people. This estimated an overall sales of 100 crores a month. The turnover of millions of rupees came to halt soon as the lockdown was announced.
The industry has been facing a shortage of demand from various countries like Dubai, Singapore, Sri Lanka and a few states from south India too. The exports have gone down completely and the transactions worth crores have not occurred ever since last year. This has led to the tremendous struggle of over 10,000 workers, who were dependant on the same industry for feeding their families.
The biggest problem that is knocking on the industry’s doors is the problem of losing skilled labour. During the lockdown, many workers started working elsewhere as a few were migrant workers and never returned back after the lockdown ceased during the first wave. Most of them were Uttar Pradesh and Bihar based workers.
Mallikarjuna, the owner of Bellary Pollux Jeans, said the shortage of skilled workers was growing and it would be difficult to sustain the industry in the coming days.
