Fair Finance India recently released the report ‘Mapping garment industry funding in India – An analysis of the ESG reporting of banks’. Fair Finance is a coalition of civil society organizations working for greater transparency and accountability in the financial sector in India, by encouraging the integration of human rights standards and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria in their policies.
This report seeks to establish the groundwork for a long-term empirical study of the funding patterns of garment export
industry in India. As an entry point, this report sets the context by delving into the working conditions prevalent among the representative sample of 36 garment companies. Then the financial plumbing of these garment
companies from FY 2017-18 were analysed – i.e., the 10 banks which were found to be linked as lenders to these companies. Using regulatory filings on responsible financing and a bespoke benchmark for garment sector financing, the Report scores each bank on their public ESG reporting.
These findings aim to provide a bird’s eye view of the gap between ESG reporting and ensuring sustainable outcomes
for the Indian banking sector when it lends to garment sector companies. Finally, the report provides a set of next
recommendations for various stakeholders to strengthen and make ESG reporting effective.
Read the full report here.