Tamil Nadu accounts for 70 per cent of India’s leather tanning capacity and 30 per cent of the country’s leather exports. A number of tanneries in places like Ambur, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi, Vellore, Pernambut, Tiruchy, Dindigul and Erode, make the industry one of the largest employment generators in the country, as it employs 25 lakh people.
The Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in Chennai, the world’s largest leather research institute in terms of research publications and patents, has a significant place in the economy in this regard. Nearly as old as independent India, CLRI has been pivotal in providing skilled workforce to the leather industry.
The Centre for Human Organisation and Resource Development (CHORD) at CLRI, in collaboration with Anna University, offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes in Footwear Science and Engineering. Till date, CLRI has successfully trained 1,335 BTech Leather Technology students, 186 and 166 MTech students in Leather Technology, and Footwear Science and Engineering respectively. It also offers PhDs in Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences, Environmental Technology and Information Sciences, owing to the multidisciplinary nature of knowledge required in leather research. The admissions are conducted by Anna University, hence the eligibility criteria for students and the fees is prescribed by the University itself. For BTech Leather Technology II/IV/VII semesters, the fees (excluding examination fees) this year was `13,310.
It also provides a number of short-term training programmes and long-term vocational programmes. CLRI conducts industry-specific modular programmes dedicated to various segments of leather processing and product sector. “The leather sector has seen a phenomenal change in the past 70 years. We are no longer a mere exporter of skins and hides. There has been a multifold growth in the industry, we have varied target groups and, fashion and design is a major part of it today,” says Swarna V Kanth, Head and Principal Scientist, CHORD.
With a placement rate of 60 per cent, Kanth says 10 per cent of CLRI alumni work in managerial and supervisory positions in China and Africa. “India is the second largest exporter of leather goods after China and the leather industry is the eighth among the top ten foreign exchange earners in the country. Indian colours have been consistently chosen at the Modeurop Congress (Modeurop is an international fashion community that creates and promotes style visions and trend forecasts for shoes and leather accessories). These factors make a CLRI tag valuable. A student here, any day, has an advantage over a fashion or design student as he/she has better idea about what type of leather goes into a product — its structure, its durability and other such aspects,” Kanth asserts.
The major advantage, she says, is being taught by active leather researchers. “There is a trinity of industry, academia and research at CLRI. A lot of them go on to do their PhD or set up startups and employ their juniors. Tata International, Farida Group, Shafeeq Shameel and Co, Hussain Leather Industries and Bata in India, and Alpha Rama in Kenya, are some of the biggest leather product manufacturers and exporters. Bata produces popular brand names like Hush Puppies. They are some of the major recruiters for CLRI students,” she says.
Asit Kumar Mandal, Director, CLRI, says one of the most significant achievements of the institute has been the bio-intervention in leather processing, a shift from a chemical-based system. “Zero waste water discharge, appropriate segregation of waste streams of leather processing; development of therapeutic diabetic footwear and collagen-based wound care products have been some of the research outputs of CLRI among scores of others,” says Mandal. MV Diabetic Healthcare offers diabetic footwear while the technologies of wound care products are used by Cologenesis HealthCare, Epicure Pharma and Sita Logistics among others. Senior Prinicipal Scientist Saravanan P says that two tanneries in India — Amar Brothers, Kanpur, and KSK Leather Processors, Erode, have implemented the zero waste water discharge system and tanneries in Ethiopia and Kenya are contemplating the same.
Prakash Dhanasekharan, 24, a PhD student pursuing research in Polymers, says, “We have the added advantage of getting the degree from both Anna University and CLRI. A typical Biochemistry student for example only gets an Anna University degree. Also, be it financial aid or research guidance, we are provided with everything here.”
The social utility value of CLRI’s training programmes is high. As a part of its rural development programmes, its initiative for saving the traditional craft of Kolhapuri footwear is worth a mention. “The leather industry prides itself on having 40 per cent women employees. In the Athani-Nippani belt in Karnataka, CLRI particularly helped the artisans’ families come up economically and socially. It improved their skills and added value to their workmanship. That gave them greater reach and greater market links. It introduced them to newer manufacturing methods, designs and fashion inputs. It made the equipmnent available to clusters of them as against the hand tools they use,” says Kanth.
CLRI has trained personnel for the industry at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. At the same time, it provides higher education, conventional degrees and offers research opportunities. No other institute in the country or the world over is involved in a particular industry at so many levels.
When asked about environment activists crying foul about the leather industry’s killing of animals for skin she says, “As long as the meat industry is there, the leather industry will be there. We are only using a by-product of the animals. After they have been used by the dairy industry and meat industry, instead of throwing away the skin or letting it rot, we use it.”