SUSTAINABILITY
Contamination-controlled cotton, ITF creating awareness
Indian cotton is good enough in quality but spoiled in wrong practice from farm to bale stage. To grab more business, this situation needs to improve. Indian Texpreneurs Federation( ITF), Coimbatore, an organisation of like-minded textile entrepreneurs with a combined annual turnover of over Rs. 40,000 crore, has come forward for the same. As India is expected to be the largest producer of cotton in 2018-19, with the crop projected at 28.5 million bales, this issue becomes more relevant. Prabhu Damodharan, Convener, ITF told Apparel Online that their organisation is creating videos and organising educational tours regarding the effects of contamination and its impact on the further process. Some ginners have been selected who are closely working with them to introduce best practice in all possible areas. ITF’ s cotton team is actively working with more than 60 top ginners of Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka.
“ Contamination-controlled cotton is our focus for the year. During the first year of operation( 2016-17) as a consortium, ITF cotton team has purchased 1.85 lakh bales and so far in cotton year of 2017-18, the purchase is of 3.8 lakh bale which is expected to be 5 lakh bales in next cotton season. With this growing purchase, our focus is also on awareness,” told Prabhu. He further added that best ginners award is also planned for 15 ginners to motivate them. ITF is also distributing caps and wearable bags to the workers, planning to send technical teams for training for further improvements. Ginners from these three states are regularly visiting spinning mills of ITF members to understand the first-hand experience of cotton performance and related subjects so that they can improve the overall process. Spinning mills are also benefited from ginners’ visit as they( ginners) discuss with them about the practical and ground level situations.
Is Medha Patkar behind‘ turbulence ' at Pratibha Syntex?
CottonUP is a practical resource to inform and guide business leaders and sourcing teams on the issues, benefits, and options for sourcing more sustainable cotton. The guide is part of Cotton 2040, a multistakeholder initiative to significantly increase the use of sustainable cotton internationally.
cotton and are making it easier for them to source across multiple standards. Anita Chester, Head of Sustainable Raw Materials, C & A Foundation said,“ There is significant work to do to align and harmonise the many sustainability-focused activities across the apparel sector, and to drive production of more sustainable cotton from around 15 per cent to beyond 30 per cent from 2020.”
It seems that NGOs have become a major sore-point for Indian apparel exporters. The latest incident involves Indore-based apparel export house Pratibha Syntex, which is attracting flak from Medha Patkar, the Indian social activist, as claimed by nearby villagers and sources working at the export house.
The company manufactures garments for some of the most respected brands and buyers across the globe. As per reports, due to continuous instigation from people like Medha Patkar, Pratibha has decided to close down its units which have not been operational due to the unrest. So far, for the long-term resolution of this problem, Pratibha has terminated services of 76 notorious associates and offered all other workers to work in the third unit. Sources informed Apparel Online that workers were being misguided by the NGO to intentionally go slow in production from 1st June, and many of them even went on strike from 15th June. They were provoked to ask for hike in salary. However, after an emergency meeting between workers’ union, villagers, and company’ s management, nearly 5,000 workers have shown willingness to work with the company. The villagers, who are offering various services like running their shops for the factory workers etc., are also facing loss due to suspension of operations. Now, as local villagers have come forward to support the company, the organisation is taking fresh initiatives for confidence building.
“ We are giving school fees for worker’ s children which will not be charged from their salary. Because of our proactive approach, many workers are now ready to work in the third unit,” informed Mukesh Vyas, Corporate HR-Head of the company.
The company reported to have been striving for development of associates. Recently the management had come up with a scholarship schemes for meritorious children of employees. This year, Pratibha management provided scholarship to 44 children of the employees, who appeared in class X, XII and college.“ My daughter Seema Soni secured 90 per cent marks in her XII class. It was a very proud moment for me when my daughter received scholarship from our Chairman,” said a stitcher Mamta Soni working at the shopfloor. Work-life balance is being given utmost importance in this industry, said Mukesh Vyas, adding that a number of sports events are being organised every year. In the month of January, every year, a signature event called‘ Pratibha Premier League’ is being organised. To develop intellectual capital spiritually and emotionally, sessions by ace speakers are organised in campus. Besides, health sessions are organised every month in the campus to ensure well-being of the employees.“ Recently, we had celebrated Annual Day in memory of Chogmal Ji Chaudhary, wherein a celebrated anchor and singer enthralled employees with his endearing style”, Mukesh added.
www. apparelresources. com | AUGUST 1-15, 2018 | Apparel Online India 15