Agra shoe industry on warpath over BIS certification

Shoe factories in Agra are up in arms protesting the imposition of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification and noticed a complete shutdown on Monday with the homeowners of a number of models holding a collection of conferences on Tuesday.

“We all strongly oppose the BIS imposition and are unable to use it on our personal made footwear,” manufacturing facility homeowners stated. Most of the industries in Agra produce hand-made footwear and as these footwear are largely made in small and cottage industry models, it isn’t doable to impose these guidelines right here, the protesters stated.

“This is my request and demand from our authorities that BIS must be faraway from handmade footwear,” a shoe producer stated.

An affiliation’s consultant stated: “We demand that this isn’t only a shoe, it’s the livelihood of tens of millions of households who make it in small homes and that is the supply of their livelihood. Our demand is that micro And the small MSME models that make footwear for the widespread man must be stored free from BIS.”

The leather-based shoe industry in Agra is centuries previous and takes care of greater than 50 per cent of the nation’s wants.

The smaller models need “no arbitrary imposition” of requirements, because the certification would add to the prices, and thus make their existence tough in a extremely aggressive market. Industry sources declare that greater than three lakh staff are dependent on this industry.

According to an official, the BIS certification is issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in India.

Agra metropolis is the largest hub of leather-based shoe industries in India and exports a significant chunk of its manufacturing. More than 80 per cent of all footwear for the Armed Forces and paramilitary businesses are manufactured in Agra.

(With inputs from IANS)