A study by industry body Assocham has revealed that about 30 per cent of total textile factories across India were non-operational as of 2010-11. This has led to massive job losses in the sector. "Of the total 17,987 textile factories across India, 12,688 factories were operational and around 5,300 were non-operational as of 2010-11," the study said.
"This is a matter of grave concern as organized textile sector, apart from creating 14 lakh jobs, also contributes four per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10.1 per cent to the total exports earnings," Assocham secretary General D S Rawat said.
Consequently, the share of jobs lost due to shutdown of operations of textile factories also rose from six per cent in 2000-01 to 42 per cent in 2010-11, it found. According to the study, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for about 88 per cent of the non-operating textile factories.
Tamil Nadu has also incurred maximum job losses of over two lakh followed by Gujarat which has lost over one lakh employment opportunities due to non-operation of textile factories. Gujarat has registered maximum growth of about 39 per cent CAGR in non-operational textile units, from over 290 factories to over 2,800 factories during 2000-01 and 2010-11, followed by Punjab (35 per cent), Haryana (32 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (26 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (25 per cent).
