Canacona: With a majority of migrant labourers rendered unavailable for work in view of the prevailing circumstances and ongoing COVID-19 lockdown situation, most of the important works that are to be completed before the onset of monsoon have been halted.
For instance, here’s a look at what is happening in Canacona taluka. On a daily basis on an average Canacona employs about a thousand skilled and unskilled migrant labourers, but the Coronavirus induced lockdown has put a full stop to all the works since nearly a month now, as there is short supply of labourers as well as raw materials. There is also a concern about hiring labourers.
Locals say that the work like construction, be it big or small works, have been left incomplete midway and that there is a possibility of the construction materials including cement and sand that is already on site getting wasted.
The fishing community has also taken a hit, especially locals who have small boats. They have to to pull their boats on land to secure them from the rough sea in monsoon and these boats are normally protected by making a shed of palm leaves over them.
Then there is the farming community, who need labourers to help repair their shelters for their cattle and for other provisions, which they fear won’t happen any time soon.
A local resident added that he had taken up the construction of a well just before the lockdown began. Now, the five to six metre long well has already been dug up and given the unavailability of labourers and raw materials, he is afraid that the well might cave in during the monsoon.
Elsewhere, with most of the locals residing closer to the forests collecting fire wood and stocking it for the monsoon is an important task they do before the onset of monsoon. With no labourers available, they add that they may have to entirely rely on other sources to keep the fire burning.
With almost every section of the communities of Canacona getting affected due to the national COVID-19 lockdown, the common consensus is that not too much can be done at this point; and even those, who would employ labourers for simple tasks, have now started taking the traditional tools in their hands to try and salvage whatever they can before the monsoon approaches.
