Supported by
By Jeffrey Gettleman
SURAT, India – The blow India’s dreams have received from the coronavirus pandemic is on the smothered streets of the Surat Industrial Zone.
It can be seen in textile factories that took generations to build and are now fumigating, consuming about a tenth of what they used to do.
You can see on the thin faces of families that sewed the full touches of saris but, with so little work, now vegetables and milk.
It can be seen in empty hairdressers and cell phone stores, which shoppers have abandoned while their scarce savings are reduced.
Ashish Gujarati, head of a textile arrangement at this mall on India’s west coast, stood in front of an abandoned factory with a look of surprise on his face and showed the road.
“See that chimney?” Asked. Smoke used to come out of him.”
Advertisement