Calling for an integrated approach to sustainability from all stakeholders in the textile industry, the participants at a three-day international conference held in Delhi, titled “India and Sustainability Standards”, delved into issues plaguing the textile and garment industry today. The dialogue forum organized by Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) witnessed a spate of experts as well as ideas, as also few contradictions pertaining to the textile supply chain and stakeholders. Thoughtprovoking discussion offered best possible solutions too, but it is hard to anticipate the impact of these ideas and solutions in real time at ground level.
With focus of the conference on sustainability, both from the Indian and the global perspectives, the event also included sessions on topics like “Responsible Business in Apparel & Textiles Sector Roundtable”; “Responsible Cotton Roundtable”; and “Women Skill Development and Empowerment Workshop”. Speaking at one of the sessions, Animesh Saxena, CEO of Neetee Clothing, Gurgaon, lashed out at retailers for creating undue pressure on suppliers and keeping the consumers in the dark. “Why do you always demand cheaper prices for products from the suppliers?” he questioned adding, “Buying is now on CM basis. If buyers continue to demand lower rates, then the standards will be compromised. Instead, create awareness among consumers that standards come at a price. If this situation persists, the sustainability will be the biggest victim.” He further pointed out that exporters also need to keep the environment and the welfare of their workers in mind, which they do, nonetheless, they are always made to look like the culprits – the violators of law and a hindrance on the path to development. “The onus doesn’t lie on the exporters alone; all stakeholders need to share the responsibility,” he argued.
“Increase in women:men ratio in the apparel factories of North India is the need of the hour. A few factories in this region have also started running crèches successfully.” – Shalabh Srivastava, GM – Training, Matrix Clothing, Gurgaon
While sharing his experience, Milton John, MD of Cotton Blossom, Tirupur, pointed out another critical concern. “In spite of always being open and transparent, the auditors always doubt us. In Tirupur, we maintain a very high ethical standard. We use ZLD (meaning zero discharge of waste water from industries) manufacturing facilities. At our mills, we mostly use natural energy. Still, we get a bad name. We are only highlighted for issues like Sumangali, which in fact is more a social welfare scheme and related with spinning mills. Brands talk so much about sustainability, but cancel orders on petty issues. If they really cared, they would look into our problems. The consumers have no idea what really goes on at our end.”
Raising another important issue, the Managing Director of SRV Knit-Tech, Bangalore, Akhil Khanna asked: “How many buyers pay double for overtime? But we are forced to do so for workers.” The views and opinions of the industry representatives clearly seemed to suggest that strong integration and collaboration between stakeholders can alone bring about the much-needed change in the industry, even while agreeing that this was not going to be easy. Compliance managers of several export houses, meanwhile, insisted that auditors should not be rigid about their checklists. They pointed out that these checklists were set as per global conditions, which don’t apply in places where the law of the land and other conditions differ from the established global ones. In this regard, representatives from among the buyers agreed that they too are helpless in this matter. Shivani Banerjee, Head of Compliance, Safety & Brand Protection, Asmara Apparels India insisted, “Sometimes saying ‘NO’ to the buyers is good. I have seen factories getting fresh orders from buyers who had earlier been turned down due to unavoidable circumstances.”
“Sustainability is really sustainable when it comes without any extra cost, especially to the customers. A very small portion of consumers wants to pay more. Majority of our raw material is still cotton but we are now looking for other fibres rather than cotton, to save water.” – Pankaj Kapoor, Sustainability – South Asia, Middle East & Africa, Levi Strauss, Gurgaon
Among the other major issues brought to the fore by some of the experts and the representatives from the industry were: Need for a common compliance code, approved by the majority of buyers; acceptance of the same audit report instead of separate reports for every brand or retailer; the need for retailers and buyers to understand the exporters’ perspective; and the need for suppliers’ unity to create justified pressure on buyers on reasonable issues. They also called for the need for a single agency that would be entrusted the duty of auditing of all buyers from different destinations.
Some of the experts maintained that a majority of the cases relating to human rights violation and bad practices leading to environmental hazards occur at the root level, where the cotton is being produced. They opined that buyers should be as concerned about this issue as anyone else if they really want the industry to prosper. It was pointed out that the complete value chain needs to be addressed and only putting constraints and compliances at the garmenting level will never serve the purpose of sustainability in the long run.
“We are working on a pilot project, ‘Factory on Wheels’, where we are roping in womenfolk from the villages of Jharkhand. Meanwhile, discussions are on with some of the top buyers to sell the products made by these women. Purdue University, USA, has also extended its support towards this project.” – Sashi Chimala, EVP, National Entrepreneurship Network, Wadhwani Foundation, Bangalore
Another key point that emerged out of these sessions was that the farmers should be educated on issues pertaining to the industry and they should then be given the choice to decide on matters involving them. In Sri Lanka, most of the industryrelated decisions are taken by Board of Investors (BOI) and not by the Government. Citing this example, it was suggested that India too should have a self-regulatory body, instead of having to leave everything in the Government’s hands. It was suggested that more initiatives like the Social and Labor Convergence Project, should be implemented. Other suggestions included policy uniformity on duties or wages across the country, and better communication and global harmonization.
“We as the buyers directly sitting at the manufacturing destination may be concerned about the exporters and price issues, but in the global competition, only efficiency matters.” – Sheetal Nischal, Primark
The CRB team, including Chairperson Dr. Bimal Arora, Programmes and Partnerships Lead Divya Jyoti and VP – Supply Chain Sustainability Raphel Jose, hosted the threeday event that saw attendees from Pratibha Syntex, Sonu Exim, Radnik Exports, Best Corporation, Panorama Exports, Raj Overseas (Panipat) Indian Texpreneurs Federation, PVH, El Corte Inglés, C&A Foundation, SAI, Women On Wings, OGTC and NIFT among others.
