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First Summit Of Tiruppur Stakeholders Forum Held At TEA

• By  Textile Excellence
• June 22, 2024

The first summit of Tirupur Stakeholders' Forum (TSF) was held on June 21, 2024 at Padmashri Dr. A Sakthivel Auditorium, TEA. TSF has been formed to bring together all the stakeholders of Tiruppur knitwear industry like trade associations and unions, NGOs, Labour Welfare Department of Govt. of Tamil Nadu, brands and buyers to ensure labour welfare and industrial growth.

In this conference Tirupur District Collector T. Christuraj IAS, M Pratap IAS, Director, Tamil Nadu Women's Employment and Safety, Rana Alok Singh, South Asia Regional Director, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), Founder and Honorary Chairman of Tiruppur Exporters Association Padma Shri Dr. A Sakthivel, President of the Association K. M. Subramanian, Vice President Rajkumar Ramasamy, President of TSF and Vice President of the Association V. Elangovan, General Secretary N. Thirukkumaran, Treasurer R. Gopalakrishnan, Joint Secretaries T. Chinnasamy and Kumar Duraisamy, executive committee members of the association, special invitees, advisory committee members and members, trade associations, trade unions, NGOs, Tamil Nadu Government Labor Welfare Department, buyers and brands were also present.

T. Christuraj while inaugurating the summit said that TSF was re-launched in October 2023 and subsequently, the first summit of TSF, is being held with the participation of all the stakeholders of Tirupur knitwear industry.

M Prathap said that he was very happy to be a part of this conference and proudly said that it was the hard work of the people of Tiruppur that put this cluster on the world map. He also expressed gratitude on behalf of the Government of Tamil Nadu for protecting Tiruppur by working in an environment-friendly manner without concentrating only on business. He also mentioned that women's employment and protection programme should be implemented in Tirupur because 80% of workers in Tirupur are women.

Padmashri Dr. A Sakthivel in his keynote address, mentioned the tireless 24X7 work of T Christuraj  and requested him to always cooperate for the development of Tiruppur industry. He also appreciated the service rendered by M Pratap and Rana Alok Singh (ETI). He mentioned the initiatives of TSF, and the sustainability efforts of the industry.

K.M. Subramanian further elaborated the ESG goals being met by the Tiruppur industry - adoption of government schools, construction of roads, bamboo park, construction and maintenance of crematoriums, cancer hospital, dialysis center, rain water harvesting, medical camps, screening camps for women for breast and cervical cancer.

Rana Alok Singh while talking about the purpose of this summit said that it was very important that all the stakeholders involved in the production and sale of knitwear at different levels work together. This only would help in removing the misunderstanding between stakeholders. He said that this conference would help in planning future activities of the TSF.

On behalf of the Assam Migration Support Centre, Prof. Ramaswamy Natarajan outlined the various measures taken by the centre for the welfare of migrant workers. Deputy Director of Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health Mr. V Pugazhenthi and V.S. Saravanan in their speech promised full cooperation to TSF in its activities for labour welfare and Industrial welfare.

In the second session of this conference, it was decided to set up committees with the participation of all the stakeholders of TSF with the following objectives:

§  Setting clear long-term objectives and chalk out the roadmap outline and design programs for clear deliverables

§  Identifying core challenges

§  Modus operandi for handling and obtaining long term solutions for major issues such as migrant labour, grievance handling mechanism, gender based violence and psychological health fitness of workers.

§  Defining ways and means to build awareness on corporate social due diligence and HR due diligence and laws in this connection.

§  Documenting all sustainability and CSR efforts of Tiruppur cluster.

Tirupur Stakeholders' Forum (TSF) was held on June 21, 2024 at Padmashri Dr. A Sakthivel Auditorium in Tiruppur. TSF has been formed to bring together all the stakeholders of Tiruppur knitwear industry like trade associations and unions, NGOs, Labour Welfare Department of Govt. of Tamil Nadu, brands and buyers to ensure labour welfare and industrial growth.