TEA expects budget to upscale textile skill industry

The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has requested the Central government to upscale the textile skill industry of Tiruppur with the upcoming Union Budget 2017-18. Budget should carry a provision for one-time intervention targeted at the skill inventory of the textile hub comprising 6 lakh workers, where upscaling could be facilitated.

“We have a self-groomed labour force rather than a well-groomed force. We are in the globalised market era and we have to compete with countries like Korea, Vietnam, Japan and China. All these countries have 95 per cent and above technically skilled labour force and we are competing with them in the global market. So, we request the government to come forward to upscale the existing skilled inventory to the required international standard,” Raja M Shanmugham, President of TEA told Fibre2Fashion in a telephonic interview.

He added that upscaling the skilled force will help the Indian products to gain value addition and the image of Indian products in the international market will grow.

“Right now, we are at the lowest level. The international markets perceive Indian products as cheap and inconsistent in quality. It is a fact because we do not have much skilled force deployed in our manufacturing activities. The attention of the government should be on upscaling the skill inventory to enable them to reach the international standards. So that will help the manufactured products to have consistency on the quality front,” noted Shanmugham.

When these good quality products reach the global market, they automatically increase the brand value of the Indian products. So, the business will also grow and we can ensure the minimisation of wastage at the manufacturing site. Automatically the manufacturing industry will become a profitable one.

TEA also requests the government to build 1 lakh houses for the textile workers in Tiruppur clusters and develop labourer supportive infrastructure. Shanmugham also said that the hub should be provided with an exclusive research division or R&D platform to take the industry forward to the next level for bringing in the technical textiles arena and all other untouched arenas.

A special board should also be established in Tiruppur to act as a connecting body between the policy-making system and the ground level. We request the government to develop a permanent structure, said Shanmugham.