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G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore , March 28

THE common problem that prevails in the textile districts of Tirupur, Erode and Karur is shortage of labour.

Lack of labour is a major problem for producers in these exporting centres. "We expect the shortage of labour, especially skilled labour, to haunt us badly, even as we continue to get good trade enquiries from textile importers and buying houses. It is left to us this year to tackle this issue seriously," said Mr M. Sivakannan, Secretary of Karur Exporters Association, who is also the chairman of the Handloom Export Promotion Council.

Shortage of labour in areas such as tailoring, quality control, fabric checking and pattern making is acutely felt in these centres so much so that the industrial associations have put in motion a series of manpower training programmes.

"We have good work orders for our garment factories but shortage of labour has made us skeptical about accepting all the work," said Mr S. Sivanandan, Secretary of the Erode-based Textiles and Garment Exporters Association (TGEA), the newly-amalgamated textile producers body, which is promoting Erode as a woven garment sourcing centre.

The TGEA has, in fact, sounded a scheme to the Erode district administration of using the services of women self-help groups (SHGs) to overcome the shortage faced by the garment units. It has assured that if their plea is accepted, the association would take up training members of the SHGs in garment-making.

According to Mr Sivanandanwoven garment units in Erode, which is on the threshold of massive expansion in the coming months, are slated to increase the number of stitching machines from 100 to 300 and above.

"These factories each would need to increase the number of labour by 40-50 per cent to cope with the rising work orders," he added.

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