Free essays for Competitive Exams-DISHA- Driving industry towards Sustainable Human Capital Advancement

DISHA- Driving industry towards Sustainable Human Capital Advancement

DISHA- Driving industry Towards Sustainable Human Capital Advancement, the initiative of Ministry of Textiles will encourage members to follow better social practices, which will give them a competitive edge in the global markets where social compliance is increasingly becoming an important buying decision. This initiative attempts to educate apparel exporting members on a code of ethics that covers all critical social and environmental concerns like child labour, health and industrial safety. DISHA will not only give the opportunity for the industry to negate international claims against child labour promotion in the garment industry, but will also help to improve the overall image of the industry on the global front and not the least, to win more international business. Under the programme, root cause analysis and guidance will be given by a team of experts as part of the capacity building programme. A toolkit will be prepared based on the Common Compliance Code by which the enrolled units will undergo an orientation and training program. Remediation plans will be introduced and after monitoring the improvement, necessary certifications will be given. There will be international agencies that will be empanelled to audit the program. 

Under the project DISHA, Rs 2 lakhs would be spent per unit, while participants would be required to contribute Rs 25,000 each. The Textiles Ministry has allocated about Rs six crore for the first year (2011-12) for the programme. In the first year, the scheme would cover 400 units in different parts of the country based on a cluster approach. The government has set a target of bringing 2,900 apparel units in the 12th Plan (2012-17) under DISHA -- a programme aimed at encouraging better social practices to meet global standards on issues like child labour. All together 775 garment manufacturers to enroll for the programme during 2012-13. 

India's 14-billion US dollar apparel export sector is critical in terms of revenue and employment. Therefore, an initiative to help manufacturers focus on good work practices and prevention of child and trafficked and forced labour was the need of the hour. The move comes in the backdrop of the concerns raised by a few western countries like the US regarding usage of child labour in production of garments by some domestic units. The US and the European Union together account for 80 per cent of India’s total apparel exports. 

The training programme is organised time to time to reorient the programme. As of now, 320 units have been reached out for the training and implementation under project DISHA. 167 companies have completed the first phase of training and are ready for assessment. The training programme aimed at the capacity building and greater awareness for the effective implementation of the programme. 

Sixty new units have enrolled for DISHA programme in the last two months. The DISHA programme seeks to train factories with wide range of workers. Factories ranging more or less 100 to 3000 workers are under DISHA programme- be it small, medium or large. Among those 167 companies which have completed the first phase are considered for the distribution of DISHA adoption certificates. It is noteworthy that more than 150 officials across India are engaged in implementation of the DISHA programme. This programme has been designed and developed by Indian agencies with an India Centric approach keeping in mind the Indian law of the land.