Around 5.30pm every day, a shandy-type marketplace props up in front of a garment manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Tiptur, about 122km from Bengaluru. Hundreds of the factory’s women workers halt at these makeshift stalls to buy vegetables, eatables and other knick-knacks before heading home.
The year-old factory belonging to Wearwel, a Gokaldas Exports company, is located at the industrial estate at Bandihalli Gate on National Highway 206. Yet another factory, belonging to Page Industries Ltd, which manufactures Jockey innerwear, is coming up on the other side of the highway. For the women in the villages around Tiptur, the coconut heartland of Karnataka, the arrival of these factories is proving to be a major boon, opening up hundreds of job opportunities.
Bhagya, a housewife-turned-garment worker and mother of two in Tiptur, suddenly finds handy the tailoring skills she had picked up as a young girl. “I earn a little over ₹6,000 a month and this additional income is helping my family,” she says. Her only worry is that she has to spend the entire day at the factory and is unable to give sufficient attention to her children, aged 12 and 14. Her husband works as a clerk for a local trader.
Annapurna from nearby Hindiskere village is similarly able to supplement her family’s income. Some of the women workers belong to agriculturist families and travel 30-50 km to work every day. Additionally, the garment units are creating allied jobs in transport and other sectors.
To cut costs, a growing number of garment makers are shifting their manufacturing operations from Bengaluru to Tier II and Tier III cities and towns in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
The jobs are now going to places such as Tiptur, Hassan, Maddur, Shimoga in Karnataka; Hindupur, Chittoor, Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh; Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem in Tamil Nadu.
“Apart from rising labour costs triggered by a shortage of workers, the rise in land value in Bengaluru has prompted many units to shift operations to rural or semi-urban areas,” says AS Subramanian, Chairman of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI)’s Southern Region and Managing Director of Gartex Insta Apparels Pvt Ltd.
He attributed the labour shortage to schemes such as MNREGA, which have weaned away many unskilled workers back to their villages. Moreover, many new jobs now available in malls, supermarkets, call centres and petrol bunks are relatively less labour-intensive and more attractive to the garment worker, who is usually educated and possesses basic language skills.
The garment industry in Bengaluru today employs about three lakh, compared to five lakh a few years ago, Subramanian said. The shortage is forcing companies to ferry workers from a radius of 15-20 km around their units.
Gartex, with four units in Bengaluru and 3,000 workers, is planning a new unit with 1,000 workers at Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. “Companies are setting up training units for employees at their own facilities,” says Subramanian.
Shahi Exports is another large garment company that has branched out into smaller towns. Apart from its upcoming unit at Tiptur, Page Industries is setting up another at Gowribidanur with a production capacity of 15 million pieces per annum, and a third unit in Hassan. Towards end-December, the company had over 18,000 employees across nine manufacturing locations in Bengaluru, Mysore and Hassan.
Pre-empting migration
“Relocation of garment units to semi-urban and rural areas is creating jobs locally, thereby preventing migration. Several garment workers are going back to their villages,” says Jayarama, Executive Committee Member of the Garment and Textiles Workers Union affiliated to the New Trade Union Initiative. He estimates that about 1.5 lakh are employed at units outside Bengaluru in Karnataka, and around 5 lakh, mostly migrants from neighbouring districts, in Bengaluru. The scattering of the units will, however, make it difficult for unions to keep a check on the exploitation of labour, he adds.
J Crasta, Co-Chairman of Assocham’s Southern Regional Council says the quest for cheap and adequate labour is forcing garment units to move to semi-urban and rural areas. This trend is largely in line with the Government’s vision of shifting industry outside of Bengaluru.