Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has introduced Quality Control Orders making BIS standard compulsory for all kinds of Footwear. Three type of products, Hawai Chappals, Sandals and Slippers and Sports Shoe are exempted till 31st December 2023.

Though the footwear industry is not against implementing quality standards on footwear, the industry believes that the current standards and implementation directions are not scientific.

They raise many points to substantiate that the standards published are not scientific.

BIS has published one standard for Sports Footwear – General Purpose. But this standard is the same for an Injection mould PVS shoe which will cost Rs 300 in the market and for sports shoes made by multinational companies costing Rs 10,000.

Similarly, Hawai Chappal has the same standard for a non-branded product costing 100 rupees and a branded product costing 1000 rupees. A kids footwear made of soft EVA sheet and a direct moulded PU footwear have the same standard. The industry points out that there are many other such issues in testing, in procedures etc. More over 75% of the Indian Footwear Industry is from unorganised sector and the sector employs about 44.2 lakhs people as per a Government study. The majority of this unorganised sector are in the MSME sector and they will not be able to follow BIS if the standards are not scientifically fixed and simplified. The end result will be closure of the entire MSME and only the existence of a handful of organised and many multinational players.

The industry believes the following matters must be considered and quick action taken to save the MSMEs from losing out.

1. The Footwear Industry is not against BIS or Quality
2. The current standards and Implementation procedures are not scientific or practical and need an immediate
3. Micro and Small companies were exempted from BIS by the Government before. The industry requests to continue the exemption for micro and small units from these
4. A time of 2-3 years should be given to all Industries till BIS brings out proper standards which can cover product category, product price, process of manufacturing and raw material used in manufacturing. The most important thing is to understand that time is required to build sufficient infrastructure by BIS or other organisations for testing and implementation and also for assuring availability of suitable raw materials which will conform to BIS
5. Enforcement of BIS should not be retrospective. It should be applicable only on the products manufactured after the final date implementation of BIS and not on goods manufactured before the BIS implementation This avoids a huge waste of products and losses in the industry.

The footwear industry looks forward to a correction by the immediate intervention of government in this regard with MSME Ministry, DPIIT and Commerce Ministry at the earliest for saving the MSME Sector.

The footwear industry is planning to launch a campaign’ “One size won’t fit all” to bring it to the notice of the general public.

MSME Footwear Action Council Chairman VKC Razak, General Convenor Maliyakkal Babu, CIFI Kerala Chapter President PP Muzammil, Fooma Kerala President Rajith Mullasseri and General Secretary Shamsudheen etc. attended the press conference held in Calicut.

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Nitin Jain