The real price of textile

India's economic liberalization probably didn't see it coming. As the waters of the Noyyal foam, little does the average consumer realize what's brewing beneath the ground.

For starters, a single cotton T-shirt weighing 250 grams uses a humongous 2700 liters of water. In Tamil Nadu's Tirupur, Erode and Karur, widely fabled as textile export hubs, fertility clinics have mushroomed like never before. The area has seen a significant rise in infertility treatments. The effluent discharge from the textile units on account of dyeing and bleaching has led to this. Everything from health hazards to crop failures has seen a sharp increase.

In Indonesia, the Citanum, once its lifeline has now been termed as the world’s most polluted river. The stench from dead animals due to toxic discharge from untreated or minimally treated textile wastewater is passe. The rice fields around are heavy in sulphates and lead, creating hazards like cancer, itchy skin, nervous breakdown and diarrhoea in children. Statistics state that nearly 200,000 tonnes of dyes are lost to effluents every year.

The more I researched, the more conscientious I became. The rise of ethical textiles is not a marketing buzzword but an industry that needs impetus. When I came back to India after a visit to Sweden on a holiday, I was browsing through big box retailers in home furnishings trying to find a quality bed sheet set with the same softness and feel made from organic cotton, that I experienced at a hotel there.

I couldn’t help but notice a lack of options. All of it appeared the same, plastic packed and with absolutely no information about where the cotton came from. Truth be told, conventional cotton is the dirtiest crop in the world consuming about 16% percent of the world’s insecticides. The GMO-pesticide cycle is a vicious one. Here’s how. Every time a farmer buys patented GMO seeds under a contract from some MNC and a bad season or pest infection ensues, he is triggered into debt. An inability to pay debt forces the farmer into suicide.

Meanwhile organic cotton is majorly produced in land that is predominantly rain-fed rather than relying on ground water extraction. Overall, according to The Textile Exchange, organic cotton uses nearly 88% less water and 62% less energy. Interestingly, cotton seed oil is a by-product of processing. It is used in a variety of packaged food products including chips and cookies. Cotton seed hulls as well as gin rash are fed to livestock. The by-product containing pesticides finds itself into dairy and ultimately in our diets.

Thirdly, the cotton textile trade is replete with middlemen. Most manufacturers are left clueless when it comes to knowing the origin of their cotton. They’re either buying their yarn from some other manufacturer or greige (unprocessed) fabric.

All of the above pushed me further to start Amouve, the first of its kind organic bedding and bath towel brand in India. If one spends ⅓ of their lives in bed directly in contact with bed sheets, it helps to know what goes into them. Additionally, knowing the origin of our cotton was of prime importance to me. Hence, we tied up with farmer cooperatives to source our cotton directly from them, thereby also giving them a price that is higher than the MSP.

The textile industry had for a long time ignored human rights of factory workers, safe working conditions and minimum wages. The Rana Plaza incident in Bangladesh killing 1134 people in 2013 proved to be a major turning point in getting multinationals to follow a set, safe standard for producing apparel.

From a consumer’s point of view, choosing organic feels great to the skin, and is a fraction of the premium one pays to keep the environment and the entire supply chain intact.

The next time you opt for your T-shirt, lounge wear, bed sheet or towel, know that the onus of an informed choice lies on you.