| It is official. The Garden City can now be safely called as the Garment City. Bangalore can pride itself on another, dollar-happy industry which earned a gigantic Rs 7,000 crore in 2006 and is estimated to rise to 15 million dollars by the year 2012. In India, this industry is the second largest job supplier after agriculture, providing employment to more than 45 million people. Nearly 70-80 percent of its work-force comprises women, thus making it the second major job provider for women after the Beedi trade. In Bangalore alone, more than three lakh women are employed in the industry.
Many women who migrate from rural areas to Bangalore looking for a living, find work in this industry. Take Shardha, for instance. She shifted from a village in Channagiri Taluk of Davanagere District to Bangalore, 10 years back and easily got into garment industry as a tailor. She says, “It helped me sustain and even save some money."
But every happy story has a flip side and the garment industry is no exception. “I have worked in six factories. Two of which were well-managed and pretty good at infrastructure while the rest of the four were disorganised and filthy," says Shardha. Workers also complain about the heavy work load and short deadlines. "However hard we try, we just can't manage to make it within the prescribed time and unless the assigned work is completed, we can't step out of the factory," says Meenakshi, Sharada's colleague.
Many a time, women workers are also harassed by their male supervisors. Case in point is Ammu, a 25-year-old migrant garment factory worker who could not bear the constant harassment by her male supervisors and committed suicide inside the toilet of her factory on February 10, 2007.
Nearly 50 to 60 percent women working in this industry are either deserted or single mothers and grapple with similar problems routinely. One of the major reasons for employing more women workers in this industry is that they are considered to be a ‘docile’ work-force. They are preferred by the managements since coming from underprivileged and needy families, most of them continue to work regardless of exploitation and bad working conditions.
With a pitiable salary of Rs 3,000 per month, Ratanamma is forced to work for 10 to 11 hours, daily. Unable to finish in the prescribed time, she is forced to do overtime without extra pay and occasionally even barred from going to the toilet. Getting a leave sanctioned is an uphill task. Sometimes, unless a worker collapses, the leave is not sanctioned. Padmavati (35) collapsed just outside her factory and died two hours after she was taken to the hospital by her colleagues. In spite of continuous vomiting and numerous requests for leave, she was neither allowed to go home nor was she allowed to rest in the factory.
Trade restrictions had hitherto kept the textile industry from scaling heights but with globalisation in full swing, big names in Indian textile industry are competing with global players. Even smaller factory owners now rely on low-cost labour to meet high-targets.
Karnataka has announced the setting up of six Apparel Parks at Davangere, Harohalli, Doddaballapur, and also in Bidar and Bellary. Six huge enclaves of 200 to 500 acres are being developed by the state to facilitate the setting up of apparel related production units — ranging from weaving, spinning, bleaching, embroidery, tailoring etc. These units, like factories, are to be remote controlled by the dates and fashions set by export orders. Sounds promising but it is time to ensure that no one is made to work for a pittance and humane working conditions are created for the workers, inclusive of proper lunch breaks and leave of absence. | |
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