Impact of changed priorities
The reason behind this is that earlier the priority of the consumers was Roti, Kapda and Makaan, now the priority has changed. After bread there are other necessities like mobile phone, television set etc. Earlier women used to buy 7 to 8 meter long sarees, now the demand for sarees has reduced. She used to buy dupatta with every dress, now that too is out of fashion, churidar pyjama has replaced the leggings, which has led to a huge drop in the demand for synthetic fabric.
Many units closed in a few months
Kamran Usmani, general secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress Gujarat, claims that this is not the only reason for the slowdown. According to him, illegal dyeing and processing houses are running in large numbers. They do not have to pay taxes and other charges, their cost of production is much lower as compared to units registered with various departments. Due to this unfair competition many units have closed down in the last few months.
1 lakh workers unemployed
Usmani estimates that at least 70,000 to 1 lakh workers have been rendered jobless, many of whom have returned to their native states. A few years back, these laborers could survive even if they got 18 to 20 days of work, but due to inflation and rising cost of living in Surat, now even 24 days of work is not enough to survive.
These are the ways to improve the situation
Vakharia says the industry needed the benefits of the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF), but the scheme lapsed last year. It needs to be restarted asap. As far as consumer demand is concerned, the textile industry is in need of value added products and fashion driven products, so demand is likely to pick up and the situation will improve.
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