The 45 million people employed in the Indian textile and garment sector are capable to affect results of at least 40 parliamentary seats across the nation with their strong presence, but once again they have been ignored by all the national parties even during campaigning before the election as only few bothered to go to these hubs. While the manifesto of BJP has mentioned that they will support employment generating industries, the Congress manifesto does not have even a single word that could directly or indirectly be linked to the industry. On the other hand Indian soldiers who are very less in terms of numbers, compared to people of textile and clothing industry, are being treated as a vote bank and get special mention by most parties including the privilege to vote at their place of duty.
It is surprising that parties do not look at these 45 million workers as a solid vote bank nor do they try to reach out to them. Is it not a question mark on our national parties as to how they can ignore such a huge work force from a single industry? Increased/living wages, more facilities at work place, training, benefit schemes, unrealistic production targets and gender discrimination, casualisation of work, occupational hazards, contractual labour are some of the issues which could be attractive for textile and apparel industry based work force and required attention by national parties.
[bleft]Tirupur, Bangalore, Erode, Karur, Salem, Coimbatore, Chennai, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Delhi, and Gurgaon, are some among the 40-odd constituencies where textile or garment workers could play major role in the victory or defeat of the candidates.[/bleft]
But what has been done and promised for our industry is very little, like BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi assured of uplifting the status of the textile and handicrafts sectors in Erode and nearby districts saying, “Erode has the potential to become a textile haven. From handlooms to cotton spinning, ginning and dyeing all components of textile industry is present here. Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode have much scope for development in this sector.” In Tirupur, some exporters created the ‘Well-Knit Tirupur – 2020’ vision document as a road map for its knitwear industry and handed it over to BJP representatives.
On the other side in Bangalore and nearby areas, four-lakh strong garment factory workers did get noticed as few candidates campaigned in factory premises. Bangalore south Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani, who is also the son of a textile-mill manager, had lunch with factory workers in the factory canteen and discussed important issues with them. While in North, Amritsar Textile Processing Association extended their support to senior national BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who has assured them that BJP would announce a special package for the industry in the border area and that an industrial corridor would be setup in the region.
It is also noticeable that there is not even a single organization or body at the all-India level for the textile and apparel industry based workers which can lead and represent strongly these 45 million people of the industry. All efforts are local and polarized… Just think of what can be achieved if these millions are treated like a vote bank!
An example has been set by the Indian forces, which is worth mentioning. 14 lakh serving and over 25 lakh retired military personnel got benefit of one rank, one pension announced by the Government in mid February, 16 days before the election announcement. Very recently 15 lakh armed forces personnel got voting rights at place of posting which is another big step. In another such incident, Punjab-based ex-servicemen organizations have managed to get around one lakh serving defense personnel registered as voters in the three major cantonments of Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ferozepur. Organizations like the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) formed in 2008 gathered strength as they lobbied for a better deal for soldiers. In Punjab and Haryana, the State Governments recently announce several sops for the same.
