Pants to Poverty hit India with an exclusive New Consumer diary

Ben brings his Pants to Poverty message to producers in India

Over the next fortnight, Ben Ramsden from campaigning Fairtrade cotton company Pants to Poverty will be filling us in on his fact-finding trip to India. Here, he introduces his mission....

Indore, MP, India So, here I am… in the hotel garden in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, it’s 10.10pm and live music and the occasional car horn squawking in the background are oozing all around me. This is now the fifth of my 21 nights in India with the objective to develop a clear plan to put into practice Pants to Poverty’s mission to rid the world of bad pants!

Since I have been here the papers have been celebrating the announcements that India has taken the number 2 spot from the US in number of mobile phone subscribers and that TATA (an Indian car manufacturer) have recently bought Jaguar and Range Rover from the “ailing” US car manufacturer Ford motors. It’s clear that we are living in exciting times, times that we have more to learn from countries like India than some might think!

While here, I have been visiting Pratibha Syntex Ltd (PSL) a company with ethics, excellence and the environment sewn right into its core, and, I am delighted to say, the makers of our wonderful fairtrade and organic pants. We were introduced to Pratibha (meaning talent) by our friends Thomas and Abi at Gossypium – one of the leaders in fairtrade clothing who have been helping us for the last 2 years to establish ourselves as a Fairtrade and Organic underwear brand – and Thomas has joined me at the beginning of the trip. Our first day’s work was Rang Panchami, the fifth and final day of Holi - the festival of colours when vivid pink, turquoise and red dyes are thrown in the world’s biggest paint fight celebrating the victory of good over evil – and a perfect day to inspire our discussions for our new summer range! However, as it was still a holiday, the factory floor was closed and so after agreeing on the designs and paperwork, we went home early for dinner and a nightcap.

Pratibha are India’s only fibre to garment manufacturers – meaning that we know what has happened throughout the entire manufacturing process right from grain to groin - and, with world famous Indian hospitality, the inspirational MD, Mr Shreyaskar Choudhary gave us completely unfettered access to their plant, their staff and their truly exciting plans for the future – to become the world leader in sustainable and organic cotton manufacturing.

We visited the fairtrade and organic farming projects they support (called Vasudha or, in our language, Mother Earth) and learnt the phenomenal importance of cows in organic farming – their urine and dung are used as key ingredients to pesticides and fertilizer – the power of the earthworm in developing the soil and the importance of working with good pests in the fight against bad pests – a struggle very close to ours against bad pants!

Today, my final day in Indore, I spent in the factory, meeting a complete cross section of staff including factory workers, the MD, the merchandiser, directors of Compliance, Human Resources, Marketing and many, many more – for more detail join our pants people network either by buying our pants signing up on our website.

Pratibha really do seem like the change that we need to see in the garment industry… open, honest and committed to a new way of doing business and, I am delighted to say, excellent at making great pants! Pratibha means talent, and with committed talent on our side we know that our suppliers are truly supporting mother nature and putting real power into our pants! However, for pants to poverty, working with the best to make great pants is just the beginning of our journey.. tomorrow, I leave for Gujarat, close to the border with Pakistan where I will be learning from one of the world leaders in growing Fairtrade cotton. Welcome to the beginning of our journey to rid the world of bad pants…. I hope you’re ready for a beautiful ride!