The Hindu : Front Page : Hostels soon for women workers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 03, 2005

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Hostels soon for women workers

M. Gunasekaran

1,500 to be accommodated; 75 p.c. from Centre as grant

TIRUPUR: It will be a win-win situation for the poor hosiery workers and their employers - knitwear exporters.

Hundreds of working women, who migrated from far away places and live in `line houses' in an unsafe and unhygienic conditions, will soon heave a sigh of relief.

The Netaji Apparel Park (NAP) and Tirupur Export Knitwear Industrial Complex (TEKIC) will soon have huge hostels to accommodate their women workers.

The Tamil Nadu Water Investment Company Limited (TWICL) has finalised tenders to construct massive hostels at a cost of Rs. 5 crores. The NAP and TEKIC, who are facing the problem of shortage of labour, have donated lands of two acres and 2,600 sq. metres respectively.

According to sources, the hostel blocks at NAP will accommodate 1,000 women and the TEKIC complex will house 500 persons. A detailed plan has been sent to the Centre through the State Government and TWICL is awaiting approval.

"The moment we receive the assent we award the tenders. Most probably the works will begin by January and completed in a year,'' a senior executive said.

The Industry and Commerce Ministry of Government of India had given its approval in principle a year ago to construct hostels in Tirupur at a cost of Rs.5 crores under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme.

Land a major problem

The Centre provides 75 per cent of the project cost as grant. The rest will be raised by the industry.

Initially the authorities planned to construct hostels in four or five places. Despite a desperate search for several months they could not find lands for hostel buildings in Tirupur town limits. No local body has provided the much-needed land and private lands are not at affordable costs, sources point out.

Finally they zeroed in on NAP and TEKIC, the duo was established by the Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) with Government aid and located in different directions at a 16 km distance from town. The TEA president, A. Sakthivel says the hostel will have different types of rooms housing two or three persons each. Recreation and other provisions will be arranged and a nominal charge collected.

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