EU Parliament takes an overview of DISHA

Richard Howitt MEP, European Parliament Rapporteur,

on Corporate Social Responsibility took an overview of government sponsored programme-DISHA, run by Apparel Export Promotion Council. Driving Industry towards Sustainable Human Capital Advancement (DISHA’s) objective is, bridging the gap in apparel factories in the implementation of social and environmental codes of conduct through effective management systems and a structured workplace communication. Praveen Nayyar, Chairman DISHA Sub-Committee and Vijay Mathur, Acting Secretary General, AEPC were also present during the meeting.

Howitt raised many questions and sought clarifications on multiple issues. Replying to Howitts queries on acceptances received; competitiveness issues, challenges faced so far and management of the knowledge and harmonization, Praveen Nayyer said, “The programme is not going to dilute the competitiveness of the sector, but in fact enhance it. Our main concern is the stringent norms for overtimes, which is far above the ILO stipulation and that of some of our competing countries. He shared optimism on the acceptance of the programme globally.”

Making the presentation Chandrima Chatterjee, Director Compliance and Project DISHA, stated that DISHA programme also provides training for demonstrable and better benchmarking of social and environmental performance of factories. Chatterjee further added, “We are working towards changing the culture and approach of audits and make it more SME friendly and encourage sustainable changes for the apparel Industry in India.”

Vijay Mathur, ASG AEPC requested Howitt to help in corroborating on efforts for greater capacity building of factories for better management of compliance risks. Concluding the meeting Howitt said, “My objective is to study the aspects of compliance in India so that better harmonization of CSR policies in India and other regions of the world can be achieved.”