Of the 58 mills which once dominated industrial life in the city, just 11 private mills are still open. Another 25 are working at 15 per cent capacity.
Pandurang Talkar, 55, is one of those forced to join the sea of retrenched mill workers when the Khatau Mills closed down five years ago. Nearly 6,000 workers at three mills have not been paid since. Talkar was once a titan on the shopfloor, overseeing work in the spinning department. "I never thought things would come to this," he says.
Overnight, he found his skills "useless". Twenty-five years after joining Khatau, there was no work for this expert jobber. So he joined the swelling pool of informal sector workers, trying his hand at setting up a pan-beedi shop, hawking bananas and selling old utensils. "I’ve used up all my savings. My debts run up to nearly Rs 80,000. My wife’s jewellery has been sold," he says.
Unable to cope with their debts and prey to severe depression, large numbers of retrenched mill workers have committed suicide of late. "Four of my closest friends committed suicide. There was too much tension," says Talkar bleakly. Will he be next?