India’s Textile Industry: A Global Impact with Environmental Consequences
By Sahil Patel
Introduction
The clothes you’re wearing, the fabrics in your bed sheets, and even the cloth in your curtains. Chances are, the majority of the textiles used to make these items came from India, or in some part of South Asia. India’s textile industry is one of the oldest and most established industries in the world. Second after agriculture, the textile industry is one of India’s largest sources of employment and contributes significantly to India’s growing economy. For thousands of years, India has offered the world sturdy and vibrant fabric for a low dollar cost.
However, water pollution is one of the biggest sources of concern for the future of India. Many of the streams used for drinking, bathing, and irrigation are being pumped full of chemicals, color, and plastic on a daily basis. Turning once sacred rivers and bodies of water into an uninhabitable and unsafe zone for all life. To attain economic growth that improves the lives of millions of people, while also doing so in a sustainable way that does not destroy the environment, a balance between profitability and nature needs to be achieved.
Growing cities, shrinking rivers
Nationally, the textile industry provides relatively stable jobs for millions of people all across India. From hand-woven fabrics, to mega textile mill factories, this industry has continually transformed the land and its people. Foreign investment is also a major contributor to the growth of the textile industry, further producing thousands of factories and mills that create jobs. More than 40 million people are employed by the textile industry in India, and that number will continue to grow as India increases its global presence, which will further expand the industry.
Tiruppur, a city in the state of Tamil Nadu, is a great example of the impacts of the textile industry boom. It is known as the Knitwear Capital of India. After India’s independence, Tiruppur was an agricultural town that obtained its water supply for crops and its people from Noyyal and Amaravati River. At first, small and family owned textile stores dotted the city as its main export continued to be agriculture. Today, as a result of the textile industry boom, Tiruppur is one of the largest textile producers in India, and leads the country in total cotton exports yearly. In this city alone, the number of textile manufacturing factories and mills exceeds 10,000 units, which employs over 600,000 people. Although Tiruppur also produces other goods, such as metals, cotton is its biggest source of income. With the global demand of cotton increasing, the city of Tiruppur is set to be one of the fastest growing cities in India, and an industrial hub for global companies to make their mark.
The Environmental Problem
Although the government has put in place subsidies and regulations on environmental waste, through requiring water treatment plants for example, the current political state of India allows large companies to exploit numerous loopholes to continue to produce textiles at the lowest cost possible (which results in more pollution).
Take our example of Tiruppur from earlier. One of the many sources of irrigation and water supply comes from the Noyyal River, which flows close to the main industrial hub. Throughout the city’s history, farmers and the population struggled with the constant dumping of textile waste and colors into the river. This causes the water to become toxic and foamy, filled with micro-metals and chemical color that comes from the mass production of clothes and textiles.
In a single generation, a once clean and sacred river became a source of a political and environmental struggle. Where the government isn’t able to handle the mass dumping of pollutants into the river. While there have been many new policies and projects to help combat this problem, such as extracting water from other far out rivers, and piping it down to Tiruppur, this is still a growing problem that won't be solved overnight.
The economic growth from the textile industry has improved the lives of millions of people in India, and the solution is not to get rid of textile producing factories and mills that supply the population with jobs. But some might argue that the consequences will one day outweigh the positive growth. We have to ask the question: How much are we willing to sacrifice our surroundings for our own benefit, and is there a balance we can achieve?
A positive outlook
In the United States, much of the young south asian population are the first generation to be born outside of India. Our parents immigrated here to build a life for their family, and that includes having an easier access to life’s essentials. Our clothes that we are able to buy from our phones, the foods we can order from an app, a significant amount of this is sourced from countries like India. And as such, India has to face the many struggles of industrialization to fit our growing demand for these things. In which one of the biggest struggles is environmental degradation. We aren’t going to be able to make a dramatic change by reading a few articles, or sharing awareness posts on social media, but we can be more mindful about what we are purchasing, and what we are wasting. Whether in the United States or in India, our generation is one of the most vocal about the future of this planet, and are the most critical towards the steps governments and corporations are taking to ensure our next generation can live in a nature rich world.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_industry_in_India
https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/textiles-apparel
https://www.ibef.org/industry/textiles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruppur
