Textile mills in south India, which are facing a high rate of attrition, plan to conduct a job fair at Tripura on April 25 to 26 to recruit workers directly. Seven textile mills would take part in the fair with an aim to recruit about 4000 workers. This is on a trial basis and candidates can join work immediately. There are several schemes of the central government under which mills will train the workers for three months and then induct them as operators.

About 2,500 textile mills in the south employ close to seven lakh workers, of which more than 60 per cent are migrants. A migrant worker stays at a unit for just seven or nine months and leaves. This affects almost 30 per cent of the production. There is no process to verify the profile of workers and mills are unable to find out if a worker who goes home will return or not.

So migrants need to be trained not only in work but also in workplace systems. Hence it was decided to conduct job fairs in different states where mills can recruit directly.

Tripura has extended support for the initiative. It will identify eligible candidates village-wise and verify their details. Just a group of villages are taking part in the job fair initially.