The oldest registered textile association in Tirupur knitwear cluster, South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA), celebrated its 60th founding day.

S A Khader of Travancore Knitting Company, was the President, when the journey started with 106 member textile units in 1956. Since then, the membership rose to over 1,500 at a point and presently stands at 555 units.

A C Eswaran, SIHMA President said that earlier units that constitute entire apparel production chain such as knitting, dyeing, compacting and garment-making were members of the SIHMA. However, he said, the membership dipped once the segment specific-Associations for different stages of production such as exports, dyeing, compacting, fabrication and knitting, etc., started coming up. A majestic diamond jubilee building has been constructed by the SIHMA at an outlay of Rs 1.1 crore.

The rapid strides in the growth of the region as a knitwear cluster apparently happened after the formation of SIHMA, although Tirupur had gradually started becoming the investment destination for apparel production from a single textile unit that functioned in 1928.

Eswaran stated that the formation of SIHMA had facilitated arrangement of institutional loans for the hosiery industry and import of high quality machines for apparel production in the 1960s. Besides, during the mid-70s, SIHMA initiated the first modernisation drive in the cluster, after which it started gaining its prominence as an export hub, he added.

Moreover, SIHMA initiated the periodic wage pacts since early 1970s. This was non-existent in majority of the industrial clusters across the country at that period, say the workers.