MK Hamsa’s plywood factory on the eastern suburbs of Kerala’s Ernakulam is open for business, but he spends a bulk of his time taking phone calls from labour contractors, instead of actually running the operations. “I really don’t need more workers.
Shutting down was so easy compared to this (opening up)," he said. On many counts, Hamsa is lucky: 80% of his workforce, mostly migrants, has stayed back, and Kochi, the urban hub, which is just an hour’s drive from his factory, has largely opened up, considering that it has only a dozen active covid-19 cases (the lowest caseload among major Indian cities).
Despite those obvious advantages, Hamsa’s business is at a standstill. The raw materials (rubber trees) need to be procured with