In an attempt to update students and industry on the current ground reality of the sustainability concept in India today, a seminar – ‘Sustainable India 2020’ was conducted recently by the IAM institute. The event was chaired by some eminent personalities from the fashion and apparel world who talked about sustainable initiatives for Indian craft, impact of digitization on crafts and sustainable fashion for the future. Gracing the event, Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development was the Guest of Honour for the evening, accompanied by Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI.
aving water, electricity or reduction in waste alone, cannot help in achieving sustainability targets, what is required is a collaborative effort at all levels to make any sustainable initiative a success in true sense. It was disappointing to see that even today there is no uniform thought on how to support art and artisans. Torch-bearers are still talking about preserving the handwork, by letting it remain ‘unique’ and ‘niche’. But then there are practical voices like Runa Banerjee, Founder SEWA who stress upon the importance of giving the handicraft industry in India a business model, wherein the artisans are given regular work and paid fairly for their effort. With the new generation refusing to continue with the craft, which besides being tedious is also not paying for a decent living, it was stressed that both the Government and NGOs should take a more pragmatic approach to developing and sustaining traditional art forms.
Taking the thought further, designers like Rina Dhaka, Abraham Thakore and David Abraham through the ‘Make in India’ campaign drew focus on not just deploying Indian crafts, promoting artisans and their names, but also providing vibrant opportunities to new-age Indian designers to avoid any brain drain from the Indian fashion industry. Varsha Gupta, HOD – Design, NIFT, suggested some effective marketing strategies to upscale the handicraft industry which included, establishment of crafts museum to display the beautiful works of arts and turn areas that produce arts into GI’s (Geographical Indications), for better recognition within the country, and through tourists globally.
It was also emphasized that sustainability is not only about preserving handicraft. Prashant Aggarwal from Wazir Consultants stressed, “To make industry sustainable it is very important to incorporate few simple rules in our actions as responsible practices.” He advised the ‘Ecomark’ strategy for processes, which means using only eco-friendly, sustainable and socially viable products. He also emphasized on the 4-R cycle, which starts from Reducing wastage to Reusing products to Recycling and Rethinking what next can be done to achieve sustainability. Ram Sareen, Founder Tukatech, one of the panel members, emphasized on the production of 100% guilt-free garments, similar to what Sri Lanka has done already. But this concept can be effective only where improvement of the workforce is paramount. Also as the fashion industry is extremely labour-oriented, workers also should be involved as stakeholders in the businesses.
Taking the thought forward, Sunil Sethi said, “We should always look for ways to encourage fashion that is sustainable and should also aim to implement positive fashion values across all of its pillars and initiatives.” The main focus now should only be on the incorporation of the three pillars of sustainability which are the social, economic and environmental sustainability. Emphasizing that sustainability should not just be adopted at the garmenting stage but made mandatory from the yarn procurement level, Maneka Gandhi said, “For a thing to survive the test of time, it must evolve to contribute rather than build on the shards of others. We have permitted foreign companies with huge investments to destroy our water, fields and health to buy our leather and sell it to us at increased rates. Humans have been survivors but we have co-existed with the flora and fauna. There is a cry from all corners that we make space to co-exist and not invade the natural space with our greed and demands. Science has the answer to everything, so use innovation for alternatives.”
Summing up Dr. Darlie Koshy, DG & CEO, IAM, ATDC, sharing his thoughts said, “Though we are the second largest producer of jute, silk and cotton but we are still unable to harness our potential in this arena. Sustainable India 2020 holds many crucial challenges for the global fashion industry with changing geography of production, falling prices and intrinsic values, climate and demographic changes, new technologies, and paradigm shift in the global economy. India is a global economy. It is important to understand the context and geographical locations so that different modules can be developed for everybody. Sustainable fashion has to be taken as an approach. Tendencies of over-shopping should be avoided.”
