Background Study Tirupur - Fair Wear Foundation

ence in such regions, or building up supply relationships with key producers who
are already there. IICCI:36
Cawthorne (1995, quoted in Krihsnamoorthy: 54) noted two divergent trends
among the larger firms: either to move way from direct production and concentrate
on the commercial aspects thus adding to the subcontracting model of Tirupur or to
integrate all aspects of the production process under one roof, thus establishing a classic
factory model which seems to be a break away from the classic Tirupur model. (the large
factory model is prevalent in Bangalore’s garment industry).
2.8. Initiatives to upgrade the industry
In order to encourage garment exports, a centrally sponsored scheme titled Apparel Parks
for Exports Scheme has been launched for setting up of apparel manufacturing units of international
standards at potential growth centres Under this scheme, nine Apparel Parks are
envisaged, at Bangalore (Karnataka), Ludhiana (Punjab), Kanchipuram (Tamil Nadu), Surat
(Gujarat), Thiruvanthapuram (Kerala), Tirupur (Tamil Nadu). Tronica City in Kanpur (U.P.)
and Visakhapatnarrt (Andhra Pradesh).
Amongst the important policy measures in the decentralised sector activities covering handloom,
powerloom, sericulture, handicrafts and wool is the adoption of a cluster based approach
in implementation of schemes/programmes in these sectors. (SAARC).
Construction of the apparel park, NAP (Netaji Apparel Park), has started in Tirupur.
Under the Apparel Park Scheme, NAP would beget Rs. 10 Cr for common infrastructure, Rs
3 Cr for Effluent treatment plant, building crèches, centres and Rs 2 Cr for setting Training
and R&D centers. TEA has invested money for purchasing the land by spending Rs 4.05 Cr
and would also have a Captive Power Plant. The proposed Apparel park would house most
modern production facilities comparable to those in the developed countries. There will be
eight sheds of 40,000 Sq ft and 45 sheds of 20,000 sq ft, with a provision for vertical expansion.
The Park once it becomes operational would bring in a turnover of Rs 1500 Cr and additional
employment to 21,000 persons.
Shri A Sakthivel, President, TEA and Chairman and Mg Director of NAP urged the State
Government to introduce special labour laws for units that would be set up in the Park.
There are quite some international projects aimed at improving the industry structure in Tirupur.
Unido has run a programme in the late 1990’s on SME clusters in India and subsequently:
“UNIDO, with the assistance of the Government of India, picked four pilot clusters—textile
printing in Jaipur, food processing in Pune, knitwear in Ludhiana, and cotton knitwear in Tirupur—
to build in each region an institutional infrastructure to “help small firms in the cluster
support themselves.
“UNIDO is now implementing the second stage of its Cluster Program by building working
relationships between small garment exporters from Tirupur, one of the chosen clusters, and
cotton knitwear firms in Italy with funding from UNDP and the Italian government.” (Tewari
Goebel 2002)
The Dutch centre for assistance to importers from developing countries CBI runs a project
with some 20 companies in Tirupur to prepare them for the post-MFA market. It is called
‘Target 2005’ and aims at improving their market position and management.
The Textile Committee, the programme coordinating body under the Union ministry of textiles
that has a local office in Tirupur runs several campaigns, amongst them the national campaign
on quality and compliances in textile and clothing industry. This has three parts:
(a) To sensitize the industry, primarily the (SMEs) in decentralized sector, to the impact of
WTO agreement on Indian textile and clothing industry
(b) To convey an undiluted message that the Indian textile industry, particularly SMEs,
should pay adequate attention to improve the quality of operational processes and the
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