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Context
The textile sector in India is one of the pillars of employment (45+ million people) and export but has significant structural challenges. The issue of heat stress caused by climate is a severe problem as it decreases the productivity of labor and leads to serious economic losses; which is worsened by inflexible global supply chain requirements. The industry should move towards sustainability, automation, and heat-resistance working environments in order to be competitive.
Impact on Raw Material: The Cotton Vulnerability
India is one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, a crop highly sensitive to climatic shifts.
- Yield Variability: When there are high temperatures during flowering, the bolls are shed and the quality of lint is low. Heat stress usually accompanies disturbed pest cycles (such as the Pink Bollworm), resulting in crop failure.
- Water Scarcity: Cotton is a thirsty crop. Evaporations due to heat are raising the irrigation demand in already water stressed areas such as Vidarbha and Telangana, raising the input cost of farmers and disrupting the supply chain of spinning mills.
The Labor Crisis: Productivity and Health
The textile industry is labor-intensive with a substantial number of labor in MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises).
- The Heat-Productivity Gap: Some studies indicate that productivity may decline by 2-4% with a rise of one degree over 25 °C. The temperature in powerloom clusters, which are highly congested areas and are not well ventilated, tend to be higher inside than outside, causing physical fatigue and loss of accuracy.
- Socio-Economic Strain: Women are particularly vulnerable to heat stress as many are a significant proportion of the garmenting workforce. Overtime work in hot areas causes long-term health problems, which increases sickness and healthcare costs among poor families.
Operational and Economic Disruptions
The heat stress has a ripple effect outside the shop floor to the industrial ecosystem.
- Energy Demand: An increase in temperature will require mechanical cooling. In an already struggling industry such as high power tariff the extra expense of air conditioning or high capacity ventilation systems kills price competitiveness around the world.
- Supply Chain Logistics: Heatwaves can affect transport networks and decrease the energy-to-shelf footprint, a challenge to the global fast-fashion brands that depend on the Just-in-Time delivery models.
Key Structural and Climate Challenges
- Heat Stress Effect: Increasing temperatures are causing a bottleneck in thermodynamics, which makes the output of production and labor less efficient, and leads to drastic losses in heat waves.
- Environmental Impact: The industry is dealing with excessive water use, wet processing pollution, and huge amounts of textile waste.
- Global Competition and Costs: Indian textiles are competing with each other, high import quotas in comparison with their counterparts and enormous pressure associated with international brands to deliver fast-fashion products within low prices.
- MSME Vulnerability: Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) encounter significant challenges in utilizing, funding, and implementing sustainable technologies.
Path Toward Sustainability and Resilience
- Workplace Climate Worker-Centric: Understanding heat stress as an occupational hazard and installing cooling infrastructure are important to safeguard worker health and productivity.
- Technology & Energy Upgradation: The industry is also moving to renewable energy (solar, biomass) and use of water-efficient dyeing methods so that it can have less of an impact on the environment.
- Policy Support: The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) are positive developments in investments in technical textiles and modernized infrastructure.
- Circular Economy: The recycling of fibers should be increased, since at the moment only a minimal part of it is recycled, which will contribute to the long-term sustainability.
Strategic Mitigation and Policy Pathways
To safeguard the industry, a multi-pronged adaptation strategy is essential:
- Climate-Resilience Agriculture: Enhancing High-Density Planting Systems (HDPS) and heat-tolerant short-duration cotton varieties (e.g., Bt-cotton variants that can withstand warmer climates).
- Infrastructure Retrofitting: Adding to the factory designs the concept of passive cooling, including the reflective roofing, natural cross-ventilation, and green building certifications, in order to minimize the use of energy-intensive air-conditioning systems.
- Social Protection: Revising labor laws to incorporate heat action plans (HAPs) of industrial clusters, guaranteed rest periods, water stations, and relocated work hours during the summer months of 2015.
- Technological Change: Investment into sustainable man-made fibers (MMF) and recycled textiles, which consume less water and are not reliant on agricultural cycles.
Conclusion
India needs to go beyond conventional growth indicators to reach its goals of a 250 billion textile market by 2030. The incorporation of climate-risk assessments into the PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) parks and the assistance of MSMEs to adapt to climate changes is no longer an option, but a structural requirement towards resilience in the long run.
Source: The Hindu
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