Telangana Government’s assertion to develop Sircilla on the lines of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, referred to as the knitwear capital of India, has rekindled hopes among the power loom weavers.
Replicating the Tirupur model would do wonders for the textile town in Telangana, only if there was attitudinal change among the power loom weavers, according to the loom owners. The town and its surrounding areas were rocked by a spate of suicides by the weavers due to crisis in the industry, unemployment and invasion of jet looms for over a decade.
In a bid to give the much needed confidence and address the perennial problems faced by local weavers, TRS Government has vowed to develop textile industry in Sircilla on the lines of Tirupur. A look at the growth of knitwear industry reveals that the city of 30-35 square km, located about 50 km from Coimbatore, accounts for 90 per cent of India’s cotton knitwear exports.
Tirupur Stakeholders Forum website says entrepreneurial skills of the people, coupled with hard work and commitment to job made the city grow in leaps and bounds. The finished products are exported to US and the European markets in a big way. Almost all global brands source their merchandise from Tirupur making it the much sought after destination.
Flourishing industryStatistics alone speak volumes about the flourishing industry in Tirupur. There are 3,000 garment stitching units, 700 dye houses with an average of 10 tonnes per day capacity, 4,000 knitting machines, 15,000 tonnes of yarn is consumed every month. Approximately, 3-lakh skilled workers are employed in the knitwear industry. There are close to150 spinning mills within the radius of 50 km besides ancillary units for producing zips, buttons, tapes, labels, corrugated cartons and polybags, the TSF website says. Knitwear exports from Tirupur stood at Rs. 17,817 crore in 2013-2014 against Rs. 13,709 crore the previous year.
Welcoming the decision of the State government to modernise the existing power looms with the modern semi-auto and jet looms to produce value added fabric, Sircilla Power loom Workers Union (affiliated to AITUC) president Samalla Mallesham said that the State government should first accord top priority for providing all amenities at the Textile Park.
“We welcome the government decision to adopt the Tirupur model of going towards knitting industry sector to produce cotton hosieries by providing more employment and increased exports,” said Adepu Ravinder, the owner of power looms and dyeing unit producer in Sircilla. Any project would be successful only if the beneficiaries play a responsible role, he said and added that the government should first bring attitudinal change among the Sircilla weavers.
AD (Handlooms and Textiles) Venkateshwara Rao said that replicating Tirupur model would provide more employment opportunities and produce value added fabric on the modern jet looms. The new cotton sizing, processing units and also Apparel Park would come up in the region and there would be good demand for the cotton yarn produced in the local spinning mills, he said.
