Kolkata: There was a time in India when people used to check newspapers for the job vacancy advertisements and openings in government and private sectors. But, on Tuesday morning, when Magsaysay award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar shared the ad featured on Indian Express on his Facebook page, he made many take note of the grim advertisement, which could have been missed by many.
The advertisement of the Northern India Textile Mills Association described how the Textile or Spinning industry is facing the biggest crisis, resulting in job loss at a mass level. After the agriculture sector, the textile industry gives a huge employment opportunity in India.
The ad used a table to highlight how the export of cotton yarn has been on a decline since 2018. In fact, in 2019, the industry witnessed an even more drastic fall. The present condition of the cotton yarn industry is such that every trimester the industry is only registering a loss and not a boot in its sales.
The association in the advertisement has also mentioned that the industry had faced a similar situation in 2010-11. And it also reasoned that high-interest rates and the state and central taxes was making the cotton yarn more expensive in the international market and hence the decline in export orders.
It mentioned that one-third of the spinning industry has been closed, rest are functioning at a loss. The association also claimed that they “have no capacity to” buy Indian Kapas/ Cotton in the upcoming season, especially when Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are supplying cotton yarns at a cheaper rate. Approximately there will be 40 million Kapas/ cotton bales worth INR 80,000 crore produced by the farmers, which will not get buyers, in the coming crop season and hence would directly impact the farmers.
Significantly, in 2016, Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had announced 6000 crores packages for the textile sector and had claimed that they would be creating one crore job openings, but two years down the line, the jobs seem to have gone from this sector.
The crisis is such big that industry people are giving ads to draw the attention of the present government.
When eNewsroom talked to the senior economic affairs journalist Parajoy Guha Thakurta, to understand the gravity of India’s economic situation in the general and textile industry, in particular, he reacted, “The advertisement by textile industry association, confirms economic crisis in India.” He then added, “In January this year, when the National Statistical Commission had prepared a report that unemployment in India is at 45 years high, the government did not like it. Because of the government expressing unhappiness over the report, two members of NSC, among them one was Acting Chairman PC Mohanan, and another member JV Meenakshi had to resign from NSC. But post-Lok Sabha election, the government accepted the report that unemployment is at a 45 year high.”
“Now, this ad confirms crisis of Indian economy, but wait and see when government acknowledge it,” the economic analyst added.
