The sector sees no hope of revival for another one year, as the pandemic is feared to swallow two more festival seasons.
Human beings will never stop wearing clothes. People will never stop buying garments. Still, the garment industry has lost its hopes. The industry, dominated largely by unorganized players and with a high level of micro sectors’ involvement as an outsourcing destination, feels the pain with the micro sector losing their base. The demonetization, GST implementation and now the worse lockdown kept them on a deathbed.
The garment industry has been passing through a long-drawn bad phase. No industry, as important as the garment sector ever faced a crisis for as long a period as five years. This sector has been suffering for over five years, because of the three major blows.
The already sick garment business is further thunder-hit by the lockdown. The impact of the third blow was heavier and may last longer also. Roughly, half of small contract garment manufacturers whose wholesale showrooms are clustered in Mumbai’s Dadar had to close their shops after demonetization and GST implementation. Now more manufacturers and traders have pulled their shutters with no hope of reopening. Almost everyone will have to close, as none sees any revival in the next two festival seasons. Many are staring at the worst possibilities. The down-trend that started since the day of high value notes withdrawal aggregated further after the Goods and Service Tax (GST) implementation. The lockdown added to their woes further.
