Garment sector can provide jobs to women

Pakistan's under utilised garment sector has the potential to provide millions of jobs to women and bring about a socio-economic change in the country, said Secretary Textiles, Zafar Mahmood.

He said that only 5% of our cotton production is utilised by the garment sector, which provides the highest value addition in textile sector. This industry is distributed in small and medium scale units most of them having 50 or fewer machines. Large units are now coming up in the organized sector of the industry, as this segment enjoys the facilities of duty free import of machinery and income tax exemptions.

Zafar said this sector has tremendous export performance for the future, as it has three distinctive advantages, (i) highest capital output ratio, (ii) highest capital employment ratio, and (iii) highest export generation.

He said globally garment industry employs over 90% women workers as machine operators, cloth cutters, stitch masters, pattern designers, design makers, packagers, quality controllers, value chain processors, floor managers, etc. The disciplined and peaceful women work force in garment industry of China, Bangladesh and Vietnam had not only cut down the cost of production by 50%; it had also empowered women and brought about a healthy change in social fabric of these countries.

He pointed out that due to feudal customs and social constraints, and lack of training facilities in the past, Pakistani women could not work in large numbers in the made-ups, garment, knitwear and other concerned units. There are 750,000 stitching machines, 450,000 in organized and 300,000 in non-organized sectors, which were mainly operated by males member of the workforce.