At least 7, 50,000 jobs were created in the Indian textile and garment sector in the last fiscal. This was made possible by a Rs 6,000 crores package in June 2016 along with some radical changes to labor laws.

As many as 3, 26,471 direct and 4, 24,412 indirect jobs were created in the sector in the last fiscal. Investments to the tune of Rs 8,544 crores flowed into the sector into various segments such as weaving, garmenting, processing technical textiles and composites.

It’s estimated that every Rs1 crore of investment creates as many as 70 direct jobs in the labor-intensive garment segment and 30 direct jobs in the spinning segment. Similarly, every 10 direct jobs created in the textile and garment sector leads to the generation of 13 indirect jobs such as in hand embroidery, lacework, handwork, specialised dyeing and washing and logistics.

Between July 2016 and March 2017 garment exports went up almost nine per cent. By contrast, overall textile and garment exports dropped 3.5 per cent in the last fiscal, mainly due to a decline in outbound shipments of textiles.

To boost the competitiveness of the garment sector, a raft of measures was announced, including the introduction of fixed-term employment, optional contribution to the EPF by workers earning less than Rs15,000 a month, refund of employers’ contribution of the EPF, additional incentives under the A-TUFS, enhanced duty drawback and some income tax relief for the garment sector.