Tirupur faces dwindling orders from foreign customers. The spending power of the developed countries has eroded because of the pandemic and the war. Food, power, and equal monthly installments have become the top priorities for people in these countries while clothing is no more a priority as it used to be.

Clients in Europe and the US have cancelled their orders for non-formal wear. Customers in Europe used to buy clothes which they would wear till the fifth washing. After the fifth washing, they would dump the clothes and shop for new ones. Not anymore. Now they want clothes that last for 30 washes. This is because their purchasing power has gone down.

Tirupur is the knitwear capital of India as it produces 55 per cent of the ready-to-wear outfits manufactured in the country. The district, which has more than 1,200 knitwear factories, accounts for 13 per cent of the country’s exports in this sector. The demand for new clothes in western nations pick up between October to January but now Tirupur is facing a 64 percent fall in sales. Added to that, the surge in power and water tariffs has broken the backbone of the textile industry.