The latter is what knocked out Golu Kumar Paswan a week ago. The 18-year-old, who works as a laborer in a manufacturing facility, developed a high fever and pain. The virus has sapped him of all energy, making it impossible for him to go to work.”My company doesn’t pay me when I don’t show up, so I’m losing out on my wages, which I need desperately to pay for my rent in Delhi and to send back to my family in the Uttar Pradesh state,” Paswan said. “Things are really difficult. How am I going to survive?”Worker crunch hits industrial outputIt’s a question that many of Paswan’s fellow migrant workers laid low by the viral illnesses have answered by packing up their bags and leaving for their villages.That has left the over 1,500 small-scale factories in Mayapuri, an industrial hub that relies on the steady supply of cheap labor from the neighboring slums. Everything from car parts, textiles to machinery is produced here. The area has witnessed a 20 percent dip in production and profits because workers have been calling in sick or leaving to go back home.
Source: Delhi economy hit hard by mosquito-borne diseases | Asia | DW.COM | 30.09.2016
