The Hindu Business Line : `Include handloom sector in marking panel'

THE Merchants Chamber of Commerce, in a recent representation to the Union Textiles Minister, Mr Shankar Singh Vaghela, has lamented the absence of any representative of the handloom & powerloom sectors on the 11-member committee set up by the Textile Commissioner, Mumbai, to make recommendations on standards for `Stamping and Marking' on textile articles.

The chamber President, Mr Aditya V. Agarwal, told Business Line that the chamber has called for "reconstitution of the committee with proper representation of the handloom and power loom sectors, and also the fabrics manufacturers in Eastern and Central India."

The chamber has drawn the urgent attention of Mr Vaghela to the lopsided nature of the committee, and has sought corrective action.

Mr Agarwal suggested that there should be a proper dialogue with a cross-section of members of the textile industry throughout the country, "so that due benefits are available to both the producers and consumers."

The Ministry is expected to soon finalise the standards for `Stamping and Marking' on textile articles, and accordingly, the Textile Commissioner, Mumbai, has set up a 11-member representative committee.

According to the chamber, the committee has three government representatives, two representing consumers, one each representing garment manufacturers, exporters and importers, and two representing the composite textiles sector.

He said there was no representation from the handloom & powerloom sectors that produce more than 90 per cent fabrics in the country.

Geographically speaking, he said, the committee has five members from Mumbai, three from the government, one each from New Delhi, Amritsar and Tirupur (Tamil Nadu), "but no representative from Eastern and Central India, which have a large number handloom and powerloom operators."

Mr Agarwal said textiles, unlike other industries, has multiple constituents at the fibre stage, "divided into natural and synthetic fibres with each having large sub-groups." Converting the fibres into yarn is predominantly an organised sector activity, falling under the direct industry definition. Thereafter, the yarn is turned into fabrics and used in both grey and finished forms.

Pointing out that fabric manufacturing activity was very limited to the mill sector, he said for both the Indian consumer and also for exports, bulk of the fabrics are made by the unorganised, illiterate, handloom and powerloom-owner citizens.