T&C sector to employ 21.54 million workers by 2022 – NSDC

Mumbai: Currently, 15.23 million people are employed in the textile sub-sector across yarn and fabric, home textiles, technical textiles and readymade garments, according to a report titled ‘Human Resource and Skill Requirement in Textiles and Clothing Sector’ by KPMG and NSDC.

The report pointed out that garmenting sector employ 8.04 million people (52.78 per cent), while 3.1 million people (20.35 per cent) and 4.09 million people (26.78 per cent) work in home and technical textiles segment and yarn and fabric segment, respectively. Additionally, 60 per cent of the total workforce, about 9 million, are concentrated in urban areas. As per gender distribution, women constitute 40.3 per cent of the total workforce.

Whereas, in distribution of workforce state-wise, factories located in Tamil Nadu are among the largest employers in the textiles and clothing sector, (the state alone employs 27 per cent of the total workforce (0.63 million) of the textile sub-sector of India) followed by Gujarat (0.25 million), Karnataka (0.22 million), Maharashtra (0.19 million), West Bengal (0.17 million) and Punjab (0.15 million).

Furthermore, the report underlined that human resource requirement is expected to reach 21.54 million by 2022 translating into 6.31 million additional employment opportunities during the period 2013-22. The spinning weaving and finishing of textiles sub-sector currently employs 3.13 million employees and the employment base is expected to reach to 3.2 million by 2022, whereas currently the manufacture of other textiles sub-sector employs 9.51 million employees and is projected to employ 13.78 million people by 2022. Lastly, manufacture of wearing apparel sub-sector has a total of 4.21 million workforce and is predicted to touch 4.58 million by 2022.

India is the second-largest producer and exporter of textiles and clothing in the world. As of 2012, the textiles sub-sector contributed to 4 per cent of India’s GDP, 32 per cent of the manufacturing sector and 11 per cent of the total Indian exports.