INDIA: Three new agricultural laws were passed on 26th November, 2020 that when implemented would directly affect the income source and survival of the local farmers.
And not only stopping on that, it can also worsen the already devastating labor practices for the global cotton trade. In result, approximately 250 million people came together to fight back in a momentous strike against these laws.
What the market needs is traceability in the fashion supply chain. Nishanth Chopra founded the womenswear label Oshadi in 2015, her brands follows the “seed-to-sow” perspective. She is a strong advocate and hence her brand has a completely traceable supply chain. It serves as a positive example in the dense fast fashion market. “India has one of the highest production rates of cotton on the farm side of things,” says Nishanth Chopra
Coming back to the new agricultural laws, it is now a criminal offense to burn a field after the harvest which is called residue burning. But the without residue burning, the farmers don’t have the money or the manpower to clean up acres of fields so government should offer the solutions as well while passing new laws, says Chopra.
Oshadi as a brand is always solving the problems that no one else is addressing or turning a blind eye to. “If someone is having a great life in the US, in New York, and buying 100 shirts every month, they don’t know that 10 farmers are working on the farm in the scorching heat. People have just no relation. No one knows. They don’t know what’s behind these things. I think that’s why people end up being ignored and biased. They don’t have the information.
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Though the global fashion industry is a long way home from getting rid of fast fashion untraceable supply chains. He suggests that the government sets up technological system through which every company must run its entire supply chain. Anything less than that would be marked as a criminal offense.
“Leaving dyes and chemicals on farmland? You’re killing the soil and in turn, you’re killing yourself — you eat that stuff and you wear that stuff.
It’s like a crime, you see? It’s a slow poison.”
