Homeward Bound

Stagnant wages and a slew of government social-welfare schemes are key reasons why workers are preferring to shun factory jobs

- Parth Singh

Sujith Kumar has made up his mind. He will not return to the city.

At 29, he has seen enough of Delhi—the cramped quarters near open drains, the relentless hammering at construction sites, the fleeting promise of better wages always undercut by the weight of survival. For years, the capital had seemed like his best chance.

But when the pandemic lockdowns swept through the country, shutting down work overnight, he was forced to return to Lakhisarai, his home district in Bihar. Back then, the journey felt like an admission of failure, a retreat from the dream of a better life.

Now, he sees it differently.

“I have a roof over my head here. I have my wife by my side. Why should I go back to a place where we lived like animals, near gutters?” he asks.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, the government's food-security programme, has ensured that his family does not go hungry. In the meantime, Kumar has built something of his own—a modest poultry farm, a business that allows him to stay home while earning a livelihood. The numbers may not match a city pay cheque, but the cost of living is lower, the air much cleaner and, most importantly, he is not alone.

Kumar's decision to stay home is not just a personal choice—it is part of a social upheaval that is unsettling India Inc boardrooms.

Infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T’s) chairman, SN Subrahmanyan, voiced his frustration at an industry event in Chennai earlier this year over what he sees as a troubling trend. “Labour is not willing to move for opportunities,” he said. “Maybe their local economy is doing well, maybe it is due to the various government schemes.”

For Subrahmanyan, the maths is daunting. L&T needs a steady workforce of 4,00,000. But with workers cycling in and out at a staggering rate—attrition hitting three to four times a year—the company ends up employing roughly 16 lakh people annually just to keep projects running.