Hon. Speaker Madam,
as many of the hon. Members will be aware, the Footwear Design and Development
Institute was established in 1986. The objective of this Institute was very
clearly to expand the activities of the leather industry and give it the
necessary impetus by providing an institution, which can give design and
suggestions, and also build capability among people who will be the essential
skilled workforce for leather industry.
The campuses were
set up and, today, we have seven of them doing extremely well from the point of
view of providing skills and a Diploma at the end of the course, and based on
which you have students qualifying for design and development of leather and
leather goods. It is not just footwear, but leather-based other accessories and
professional wear that can be produced. Now, this set of institutions, which140
are seven all across the country, have been doing exe mplary work and the students
have been given good opportunity and160 they have been
recruited through campus recruitments for very good assignments in
leather-related industry. The courses are wide and varied. They look at retail
marketing capabilities; they look at technology development; and they look at
tools and implements, which are required for production of leather-based
commodities. The course has had a wide base as a result of which the course
itself is considered to be a very comprehensive one. Today, we are here to put
it to the consideration of the hon. Members and, through you, I would like to
state that the hon. Members consider providing institute of national importance
stature for this set of institutions, which are at the moment in seven
different places. Together with it, there280 are more than 40
training centres, which are all over the country, which prepare trainers who
can train students in different institutions about the art of treating leather
and leather being used as a raw material for production of certain320
goods whether they are footwear, jackets, wallets, belts or any other
accessory. Together with the institution, we also have training centres, which
have state-of-the-art facility in training trainers who can then go into the
market and help in building capacities.
I would like to
quickly draw the attention of the Members about its curricular capability. It
was initially running courses for self and later got affiliated to the Indira
Gandhi National Open University. Now, the institutions are present all over the
country as I said. Only a national university could certify courses. However,
although the Indira Gandhi National Open University420 was
giving the diplomas, these courses are in situ courses, in the sense that they
are classroom-based courses in the campuses in which they are held. In 2012,
for some reason, the Indira Gandhi National Open University said that it could
no longer provide the certification and the diplomas for these students because
they only did distance education and could480 not provide for
classroom based courses, and without adequate notice, that certification
process attached to the IGNOU was stopped. The Ministry, at that time, keeping
the developed exigency in mind, put a tender call to see if there would be any
university which can affiliate the FDDI and, on the basis of the advertisement,
shortlisted a set of universities. At the end of the day, Mewar
University
Our Prime Minister
placed a640 lot of emphasis on skill development and looked
at the potential that this FDDI had. We did not want the students to suffer.
From then, the attempt from the Prime Minister’s Office and from us has been to
see as to what will be the way in which we can get these students a
certification from a proper university.700 We even tried
looking at the prospects of getting them a deemed university status if that was
workable. Having tried several of these, we have now realised that the only way
in which the stature of the institution can be kept up and also the curriculum
content could be maintained at the level, as it is, is completely
self-financing set of courses. The only way in which we thought the course
content and the level at which this institution can function can be maintained
is by seeking Parliament’s approval to give it the stature of the institute of
national importance.800 That is why we are here before you
recognising the importance of skill component that this institution offers, not
just through the existing seven, there are five of them more to come, new ones
to come. Other than these campuses,840 there are centres
through which skill development courses are being conducted, as I said, for the
trainers based on the importance of skill development and job opportunity
creation. It is submitted to the
consideration of the hon. Members that this Bill seeking Parliament’s approval
to give FDDI the stature of national importance is favourably considered by all
the hon. Members.
Hon. Chairman Sir,
I welcome the Footwear Design and Development Institute Bill, 2017. I am very
glad with this initiative of the ever-like Minister to give authentication to
such an Institution so far as degrees and diplomas are concerned. Footwear,
other leather and allied materials make bags, wallets, briefcases, accessories
used in automobiles, furniture, interior decoration are widely used in960
modern life. These are widely traded commodities globally. The first keyword in
the Bill is ‘design’. The design, material and980 make tell
about the status, style, position and profession of a person and establishment.
Therefore, it is very important. Proper fitting, as already narrated by my
colleague, design and sole material and made to fit is essential to keep gait,
figure, orthopaedic requirement and so on. Cinderella was identified by shoes.
So, they are people’s identity also. In a saddest story in the history of Bengal
and India ,
Nawab Sirajuddulah while fleeing in a boat from Bhagwangola, was in disguise
but because he could not part with his shoes, the spy boatman identified him. The
Nawab was captured and the British got entry to India .
Presently, the trend of leather interior furniture, leather fashion dresses and
leather articles have increased. The scope of footwear and leather designing is
becoming popular all over the world. On the health sector, besides designing
for orthopaedic uses1120 in different shapes, shoes prevents
some contaminated disease. It is a very simple disease but it is dangerous. It
is called hook worm and other worm infestation. It is caused due to open
defecation, which is a major cause of anaemia in our rural population. The worm
goes via foot sole to blood. In pre-toilet era under NRHM programme, Tamil
Nadu, West Bengal and many other States supplied hawai
chappals to villagers and BPL category public to prevent them from this
disease. This simple solution of safeguarding foot from soils and dirt was also
narrated long back in "Juta Abiskar", a satire poem of Rabindranath
Tagore. The second key point is 'development' which means research and innovation
of newer models, research and invention of newer alternatives as it is very
much necessary in the present context of our political situation.1260
Indian leather and
allied industry has scope of growth in terms of local consumption as well as
global export.1280 In global perspective, China
is number one; Italy
in second and India
is in the fifth position. In matters of raw material, local consumption as well
as export, in China
everything is good and that is why it is in first position. India
also has enormous scope of improving leather industry because we can get the
materials. But for some reason or the other, it may be stopped in near future. India
is shifting from mere raw material to value added exports also. Local
consumption is also increasing. There is every scope for this leather industry
to flourish and it is very valuable for Indian economy. But I do not know how
much we can do in the present situation.1400 India
shares about 12.2 per cent of global export and in coming years it will be much
more if we try and do not put any barriers in the production of raw materials.
Major share of export goes to US,1440 then UK
and then Germany .
In export, footwear contributes about 47 per cent, in accessories it
contributes about 23 per cent and in finished products, its contribution is
about 18 per cent and in garments it is 9 per cent of the total exports. But at
this juncture, the footwear export is little less. The per capita footwear use
has also increased. In India ,
Kolkata holds second position in India
in production as well as exports. Twenty-five per cent of tanning is done in
Kolkata and fifty per cent of finished leather goods of India
are exported from Kolkata. Footwear and leather industry plays a vital role in
Indian economy. Besides export, this industry is mostly labour intensive and it
has huge scope for youth employment, especially when they will be skilled
labour, under supervision of qualified administrators.1578
