‘Birmingham’ on the Brink

The government pampers big business, but small and medium enterprises are bleeding in the steel hub of Punjab hit by the slowdown. While thousands of jobless migrant workers starve and wait

Akash Bisht Mandi Gobindgarh (Punjab), Hardnews

Large number of migrant labourers wait at the Ludhiana bus depot for the next bus to Mandi Gobindgarh - the steel hub of Punjab. As one of the bus approaches they climb on top of it and wrap themselves in blankets. Fifty kilometers later, the bus halts at Mandi Gobindgarh. They all get down and ask for directions of a nearby steel mill. While they move they see a group of migrant workers playing cards in a park. They greet and introduce themselves by the name of their district (Sitamarhi in Bihar is where they are all from). They exchange bidis and tobacco and talk about the work scenario in the city.

One of them tells the ‘new batch' that there is a dearth of jobs in the town and they have wasted their money and time by coming here. "All of us are looking for some work but there are hardly any jobs. We have been waiting for a whole week to get one," says an old man rubbing tobacco on his palm. Hearing this, the new arrivals hang their heads in silence. Then they narrate similar stories from Ludhiana - the textile hub of Punjab.

Mandi Gobindgrah is a small city with a large migrant population. It bustles with mammoth trucks carrying steel, iron ore and scrap from the nearby factories. Numerous Vaishno (vegetarian) dhabas and auto workshops dot the city where music from the latest hit, Singh is King, blares out of the speakers. Trucks are parked on both sides of the road and drivers are eating, sleeping and cleaning the trucks. There are few women on the streets, some sell shiny stickers of various gods, actors and actresses, Sikh gurus, to decorate the trucks. Most walls adorn posters of ‘2Much' gold capsules for a heightened sex life: Strength is life, Weakness is death for a man; there are posters of Rab Ne Bana di Jodi all over while rickshaws ferry Sikh men dressed in bright coloured turbans.

This arid town in the backwaters will take you by surprise. Expensive cars roam the streets: BMW, Mercedes, Skoda, etc, try to wriggle out of the small gullies parked with trucks of different shapes and sizes. Amid this entire hustle-bustle and exhibition of prosperity are the frail workers, walking, cycling, carrying huge sacks, sleeping on the pavements, oblivious of the glitz of this small but cash-rich town of Punjab.

The town has nothing striking about it except for the huge steel factories that sprawl all across and make up most of the town. It is because of these industries that the town expanded so much; now it almost touches Khanna town in the neighbourhood. The two look like twin towns.

Back in 1902, Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha sowed the seeds of industry by starting some industrial units in the town. Then Maharaja Pratap Singh took initiatives for the town's industrial development. Later, Pratap Singh declared it a free trade zone for steel in 1928. The first steel re-rolling mill was established at Gobindgarh in 1940. There are now more than 320 steel re-rolling mills and 65 induction furnaces that are exporting re-rolling steel to various parts of the country and also to some foreign destinations. Due to the large scale extensive steel business, this town is also called the ‘Birmingham of Punjab'.