Along Erode-Tirupur highway, migrant labour, Ukraine war, Jharkhand dhaba tell a Tamil Nadu 2024 story

En route to Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu that accounts for more than half of India’s garments exports, on the Erode-Tiruppur highway, Mohamed Sadiq Khan’s dhaba stands out for its name: Jharkhand-UP Dhaba. He has been here for seven years, and employs four others from his home state Jharkhand.

Sadiq Khan has seen “trains full of migrants” getting down at Tiruppur to work in looms and garment factories, hotels and restaurants, and even in agriculture, of late. “Labour ko koi problem nahi hai yahan,” he says, emphasising they do not face any resentment from the local people or politicians.

But what has resulted in huge job losses is “order recession” or sharp drop in orders from Europe, which accounts for over 40 per cent of the export market, post the Russia-Ukraine war.

The turnover of garments exports has dropped by a minimum 30 per cent from Rs 38,000 crore in 2021-22.

Just like the textile industry warmed up to migrant labour over the last decade and more, the traditional business community in Kongu Nadu’s textile belt comprising Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore, are opening up to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

They didn’t have a problem with Hindi-speaking labour, having accommodated them in hostels and other shelters here, a decade-and-a-half ago. Now, they are seeing in BJP the possibility of a change – and in this, economics is as much a factor as politics.

Indeed, one of the areas in the state where the BJP is looking at a gain over its just-under 4% vote share in 2019 is this Kongu region. A majority of those in business here belong to the Vellala Gounder community, a backward class, who were originally agriculturists five decades ago but have risen the socio-economic ladder through education and hard work.

“We are