Impact of Globalisation of Silk Industry in Northeast India: An Assessment from Gender Perspectives

Kishor Goswami Abstract The Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) of 1974 has been replaced by the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) in 1994. The new agreement eliminates all remaining textile and clothing quota restrictions from developing countries by 1 January 2005 and thus infuses more competition among countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, etc., to increase market share in global textile market. Companies need to restructure their production capacities to meet export orders, and to develop and offer value-added services to foreign customers in the liberalised textile era. There is a wide technological variation in production of textile in India with the hand-spun and hand woven sector at one end of the spectrum, and the capital intensive, sophisticated mill sector at the other. Women mostly work in the industry as unskilled labour. The high demand supply gap put additional pressure on unskilled workers to produce more in less time against an additional income that is less than proportionate increase in workload. Moreover, benefits in different socio-economic aspects such as gender disparity in wage and employment opportunities, child labour, working conditions, etc., are in question.