With India attaining the status of a factory-compliant country, garment and apparel export prospects have improved a lot. Over 200 garment manufacturing units have reportedly gone through a vigorous capacity building exercise under DISHA, the Textile Ministry-sponsored AEPC Common Code of Conduct programme. All of them have largely benefited under the scheme in areas like collective bargaining, environmental protection, labour health and safety, ban on child, bonded and forced labour, wages, recruitment, identification and maintenance of legal records, etc. Further, more than one lakh workers have received special training to ensure higher productivity in garment factories, most of which are now functioning in single-storey buildings to facilitate quicker evacuation in an emergency. Above all, the average monthly pay of a worker has now been estimated at an impressive $170.
The overall encouraging trend has prompted chain stores and international brands like Wal-Mart, GAP, American Egle, JC Penny, Target, etc., all of which maintain the highest standards of factory compliance, to source more merchandise from India, fetching an additional $3 billion business for the country. A few MNCs are almost vying with one another to make their presence felt in the Indian market by setting up malls alone or jointly with their Indian counterparts. The reason is not far to seek. With the growing population, rising personal income and increasing consumer spending, the Indian garment industry, which is currently estimated at $500 billion, is projected to grow to touch the $1-trillion mark by 2020. CMAI sources confirm that this year’s garment exports will touch the targeted level of Rs. 80,000 crores, an 8-10 per cent growth over last year.
Having secured a special status at the global level, Indian garment exporters are now reasonably confident of successfully tapping the hitherto unexplored markets, especially in Asia and Africa. This venture has almost become a necessity in view of the fact that the EU and the US, which together meet about 60 per cent of their textile import needs from India, have started preferring products from suppliers in the neighbouring countries.