Gelegphu is in its peak season of orange export, but with a limited number of people working in the depots, the shortage of labourers has become a cause of concern for the exporters. The youth facilitated by the regional labour office in Gelegphu are leaving the work one after another.
Of 113 unemployed youth and students who were employed at the orange depots, 13 of them have already left. While few left on health backgrounds, exporters said many quit after officials from RENEW (Respect Educate Nurture and Empower W0men) informed them that the underage children were not allowed to work. Most of them were minors between 13 to 15 years of age.
Due to the travel restriction across the border, Bhutanese nationals have replaced the Indian labourers for packing and loading of mandarins. However, according to an exporter, Sangay, not all can work like Indians. He said, ”they can’t work after a couple of days.”
Before, when there was no work, youth have reportedly complained to the exporters of not being able to make enough income, but today when the mandarin oranges have come in plenty, they have started leaving for home.
”In the beginning, they complained of having not enough work, but when the work is in abundance, they started leaving,” said Tsenda Dorji, another exporter.
Exporters have also raised their packaging wage from Nu 45 per box to Nu 50 with free meals, but this also seems to be less convincing. Similarly, unlike in the past, the rejected oranges are also said to go to waste this time as buyers from across the border are restricted from crossing the border amid the pandemic.
Usually, people across the Datgari town would buy the rejected oranges at a subsidised rate. The exporters have also not been able to supply to the Agro factories like in the past.
Orange export in Gelegphu began last month and so far, 170 truckloads of oranges have been exported to Bangladesh.
Karma Wangdi
