CII Communique - December, 2010

Affirmative Action
Bannari Amman Apparel Company
CII is driving its agenda of ushering in inclusive growth by encouraging
member companies to adopt its voluntary code of conduct on Affirmative
Action. Many companies are finding that policies that benefit underprivileged
youth from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes also make excellent
business sense. In this issue we share the experience of the
Bannari Amman Apparel Company.
Bannari Amman Apparel is a professionally managed
joint venture company of the Bannari Amman Group
of India and Brandot International of USA. The group
manufactures and trades in a diverse portfolio of products
including sugar, alcohol, granite, cotton yarn and woven
fabric, it is also actively involved in the service sector,
and has invested in the fields of education, healthcare,
real estate, and finance. Brandot International Ltd is an
investment company specializing in the establishment
of joint venture partnerships in the apparel and textile
industry with interests in Bangladesh, China, India,
Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico and Sri Lanka. Bannari
Amman Apparel provides design to delivery solutions
for specialty brands and retailers. The company has
a manufacturing facility on a 30 acre site located at
Ozhaiyur Village, in the outskirts of Chennai. Started in
March 2008 it is slated to provide direct employment
opportunities to 4000 people by 2012.
Affirmative Action Initiatives
Employment
• Employed about 1300 socially disadvantaged
women.
• Majority (about 65%) of the employees belong to
SC/ST.
Employability
• One month classroom training and 2 months of on
the job training on employability with wages and
benefits.
• More than 2000 women are trained and
employed.
• Internally promoted about 70 operatives as Team
Leaders through various levels of training in less
than one year of operations.
• Trained 20 fresh ITIs as Machine Mechanics and
given them employment.
Entrepreneurship
• 2 Civil Contractors (SC/ST) in Facilities Management.
Engaged many small time civil and electrical
contractors during project stage.
• Transport Service Providers – 13 out of 20 owners
of vehicles belong to SC/ST.
Challenges
• To train and develop about 6000 women associates,
so as to retain at least 4000 associates in 4 years
of time.
• To develop supervisory staff (Team Leaders)
internally.
• To deal with the non-availability of skilled machine
mechanics.
• No employment opportunities in and around Ozhaiyur
Village, especially for the female population. They
have to travel at least 2 hours to come to Chennai
for work.
• Women’s Empowerment Initiatives to empower
lower level associates to take decisions, very little
management talent to train and support the team.
• To scale up the manpower by 200 a month as training
can be imparted to only 200 per month. Have to
wait till they get skilled to scale up the business.
52 | December 2010 Communiqué