RAGS Project: Invitation to Garment Suppliers in India

These trainings are available at a subsidized cost, and offer an excellent opportunity for garment suppliers with limited budgets to both build internal capacity, and to connect with participating buyers from the US and UK. It is also an ideal way to train multiple staff members on these issues.

For suppliers, inherent benefits of participation include its alignment to national structures, including the Government of India's National Voluntary Guidelines (NVG). The onsite trainings also aim to help build supplier capacity to meet the proposed Apparel Export Promotion Council (APEC) standard known as "DISHA."   These trainings will be carried out in two phases: in the classroom, and on-site in the factories. Thirty factories will be accepted to participate in the onsite trainings. For classroom trainings, 100 factories can register; participants will receive a certificate of participation.   The classrooms trainings will include two modules: 1) gender discrimination; and 2) based on suppliers' needs: either 1) Home Worker Engagement with the Ethical Trading Initiative-UK; or 2) Management Systems for Supply Chain. Each module is one full day. Training will take place in April, May and June 2012 in Delhi, Bangalore and Tirupur- dates and venues will be released soon.   The on-site trainings in factories include two modules: 1) Worker-Supervisor Communication (2 days); and 2) Build an Internal Social Performance Team (3 days). The trainings will be based on SAI's Social Fingerprint program, and on developing management systems to improve social compliance. Local regional languages will be integrated in materials and spoken by trainers. Training will take place in July 2012 - January 2013.   SAI's RAGS Project: "Improving Social Standards in the Indian Ready Made Garment Sector," a two-year initiative supported by UK Aid's DFID, is aimed at improving conditions of home workers, a predominately female workforce, and reducing gender and caste discrimination. Project partners include the ETI-UK, Gap Inc. and Timberland. The project is also being supported by SAAS, PGC-Switcher and the Centre for Responsible Business (CRB).

For more information on cost and registration, contact SAI India Project Director Rishi Sher Singh at Rishi@sa-intl.org.

This article originally appeared in SAI's February 2012 newsletter >>>