History and determination to fight social discrimination : Sivakasi, a small town in Virudhnagar district of Tamil Nadu, and its nearby areas have the largest number of printing presses after Guttenberg in Germany. So, what was it that contributed to the phenomenal growth of printing in Sivakasi? ‘‘History and determination to fight social discrimination,’’ says 80-year-old P Dharmar, former principal of Sivakasi Institute of Printing Technology who has seen the ups and downs of the industry.

Catalyst of growth: Dharmar was part of a generation which changed the destiny of a community that suffered social discrimination like untouchability. He recalls that the printing industry would not have progressed the way it has without the yeoman services of a Tamil teacher named Reddiar. ‘‘In those days, the upper caste people who owned presses were not ready to supply notebooks and did not admit our children to their schools. So, he collected Rs 10 from his students and started The Nadar press in 1922 with a ruling and binding section and one treadle printing machine,'' he said. It was K S A Arunagiri Nadar, an agent in the press who is credited with the development of the printing industry in Sivakasi. The good quality and moderate charges as well as profitability encouraged the growth of many printing presses in Sivakasi.

The mushrooming of modern presses elsewhere, logistics and technological advancements have affected business here. These presses catered to the massive demand during their heydays and proved to be money spinners which can be gauged by just walking into any printing unit here. One would be wonder-struck by the state-of-the art imported machines installed and that too in large numbers.

‘‘The fact that several of these units have as many as 30 offset machines shows the work that they used to get. More than 50,000 workers are engaged in printing and allied industries in Sivakasi,'' says veteran printer P Dharmar. The confidence and trust that the Sivakasi brand enjoys internationally can be gauged from the fact that some foreign companies still outsource finishing and post-printing works to leading printers here. ‘‘The volume of the outsourcing work comes to roughly about Rs 150 crores annually,'' says Mr A Dhanasekaran, managing director of Safire Industries which leads in printing film posters. According to him, the foreign assignments include printing single colour books, colouring books, puzzle books, stationery and notebooks, calendars, greeting cards, diaries and pictures. The work orders come mostly from Europe and Singapore. even top security jobs like printing bank cheque books, flight tickets and lottery tickets are undertaken by the leading presses here. The industry is so entrenched and self-reliant that it has spawned a clutch of allied industries like packaging, printing ink manufacturing, poly-printing et all.

The town also has a school of printing technology that produces about 150 candidates who are hired within the country and abroad.