India’s knitwear industry, spread across Ludhiana, Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Tirupur, accounts for about 45 per cent of the country’s apparel exports.
Tirupur, 60 km east of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, is T-shirt city. It excels at knitted ready-mades and exports this year are estimated at ₹50,000 crore. Last year, exports from Tirupur touched ₹21,000 crore compared to ₹18,000 crore in 2013-14. Global brands like H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, M&S and Diesel import clothing from Tirupur.
The town generates as much as 90 per cent of India’s knitted garment exports.
The industry here started with the production of low-value cotton hosiery, mainly undergarments, during the 1930s. Knitting came in with Gulam Kadar’s Baby Knitting Industries in 1937. A forecast put exports at ₹1 lakh crore by 2020. Demonetisation, though, has resulted in a liquidity crunch in this cash-based, labour-intensive industry. Around five lakh workers could not be paid their wages, say garment manufacturers. Most of them do not have bank accounts. Business prospects are gloomy. “This is a cash-and-carry business; there is no money floating in the system. It is really difficult for us. Our sales have fallen by nearly 70 per cent,” says a garment manufacturing unit owner. Photos: K K Mustafah