SISIR WEAVES NEW HOPES FOR THE SURAT RETURNED MIGRANT WORKERS

Berhampur: When an estimated eight lakh Odia migrants working in Surat’s textile mills, 53-year-old Sisir Gouda of Balakrushnapur  in Ganjam district weaved a new hope for the migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat and put a break on the exodus of workers from Ganjam.

Sisir who worked in textile mills at Surat and Mumbai for 32 years established ‘Matexmate Textile Private Limited’ at his native village Balakrushnapur in Ganjam and employed 14 of his old experienced colleagues from Surat textile mills and 2 raw hands from his native village. Sisir gives payment of Rs 30 thousand to the experienced and Rs 10 thousand to the inexperienced. More and more textile workers from Surat are now interested in working in this textile mill.

Sisir and two of his partners including Govind Chandra Ghadei and Raghunath Ghadei (both from Abhayapur village in Jarada Patrapur) laid the foundation of the textile mills on 3 thousand square feet of land during 2020 and the production started in the last six months. We have spent Rs 2-cr till now by our own arrangement and installed 9 weaving machines, said Sisir.

We are now procuring raw materials from Surat, Mumbai, Chennai and other places and producing 1600 to 1800 meters of cloth per day and supplying the product to Mumbai which is better in quality and gradation to sustain in competition, he said.

Sisir who was working as Weaving and Designing Manager in a textile mill at Surat prior to opening the textile mills in Ganjam was getting a monthly salary of Rs 70 thousand and has sold some of his landed property and borrowed some loan from others to establish the mill here. The textile mill in Ganjam presently deals with weaving and we would make profit only after two years, Sisir said.

I am very much interested in helping the migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat. I have now installed only 9 machines in the Balakrushnapur mill. But it can be extended to 50 machines and can accommodate more than 200 textile workers. I have the experience to deal with 118 such machines. But finance is the main constraint. If the state government helps us financially to establish more weaving machines, we can accommodate more migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat, said Sisir.

Sisir’s father, wife, married daughter, and son Kaushal Gouda who is studying Diploma in Mechanics in Om Sai institute all are happy that Sisir established a textile mill at Balakrushnapur for the livelihood.

Some experienced Odia workers from Surat who are now engaged in ‘Matexmate Textile Private Limited’ of Sisir, are extremely happy in working just at the doorstep of their house.