Malls give tough time to small units

Most prefer glitzy malls in city, thanks to their ambience

With shopping malls mushrooming at every nook and corner and quite a few in the pipeline, small-scale industries in and around the city find the going tough, as many workers prefer to work at the glitzy malls than the small and dingy industries.

Such is the trend that even existing employees attached to small-scale industries, too, are fancying the options of working at malls and huge commercial establishments, say owners of small-scale industries at Kanuru and other areas on the city outskirts.

For the last few years, the industry has been facing severe dearth of skilled manpower. “Generally, after graduating from technical institutes, students join the industry in the respective fields, but the number of students joining the small-scale industry is steadily declining over the years,” says V. Ramesh Babu, Chairman, J.R.D Tata Industrial Area Services Society, Kanuru.

The major reason behind the phenomenon is work atmosphere. Unlike small-scale industries, where one has to virtually sweat it out under tough conditions, shopping malls and major commercial establishments offer air-conditioned ambience. More importantly, there is not much of stress and this attracts many youngsters towards them, he explains.

The other thing is safety and transportation. Many people, especially women find it difficult to arrive at the work places due to lack of proper transportation.

They are forced to depend on auto-rickshaws or personal transportation which can be risky if one has to work overtime.

There is no proper connectivity to most small-scale industry, whereas malls are in the city where one can depend on bus services even in late hours.

In the past, most employees used to work overtime and demand for more such chances but that is not the case anymore.

“These days, even experienced employees are not working for more than 20 days in a month and are looking for temporary jobs like security guards etc,” says V.V. Neeraj Kumar, owner of a small-scale unit.