Women in India’s garment industry exploited for sex

Gurugram/Bengaluru July 8: This report reiterates the ever slackening plight of the garment women workers of both Gurugram and Bengaluru being subjected to regular sexual harassment at their workplace

 In a room in Kapasera, at the southern edge of Delhi, we meet Navitha, and Geeta. They came as 1000s of other women to seek livelihood in India’s booming garment industry, supplying the world’s best known brands: Gap, Banana Republic, H&M, amongst others.

Very quickly, in her first job at a company called Maharani Exports, she learnt the toxic rules of how the units worked.

Navita said that her supervisors passed a comment saying, “Yeh maal khaane wala hain, chorne wala nehi.” (This woman is for eating, not to be left.)

She said “there were the supervisors had a bet regarding who ‘gets’ me. One of them offered me a phone and asked me to keep in touch with him and call him as he wanted to meet me. He said that he will pay me Rs. 5000 per night.”

When Navita complained, she claims she was sacked.

Another woman, Geeta, said that in her company, her supervisor called her a ‘prostitute’ because she rejected his advances. She said he would heckle her, saying ‘why does she not leave her husband in spite of him being an old man’.

Thousands of miles further South, those stories echoed in a room in Bangalore, in another major garment hub.

Ratna, who worked in Texport Creations, describes to her how her supervisors would pat her back on days she wore a low cut blouse.

We are told of the fatal impact of harassment: how a young girl, Sushmanta, who worked for Devaki Designs, suspected to have been driven to suicide because of constant propositioning by a supervisor.

It’s the dark side to India’s booming garment industry, a big employer of women – close to 31 million, or 70% of its workforce.

The industry is a major thrust area for the government; last month, the Centre announced a Rs. 6000 crore package; the appointment of Smriti Irani as Textiles Minister further emphasises the focus on garments as a driver of India’s growth.

But the stories we came across suggest that behind the numbers, the women who work here confront a pervasive culture of sexual propositioning, abuse, even rape to get and hold on their jobs.
These are not isolated voices: we spoke to dozens of women in these two major garment hubs: Karnataka and Gurgaon, which account for almost a third of India’s garment exports. Almost all of them shared similar experiences, some on camera, some too fearful to go public.

A study published last month by a UK based NGO, Sisters of Change, of Karnataka’s garment industry – conducted with Munnade, a local partner – found that 1 in 14 female garment workers has experienced physical violence, and  1 in 7 female garment workers has been raped or forced to commit sexual act.

The new laws against sexual violence which require each workplace to set up internal complaints committee exist , it appears, largely on paper.

Shanti, who worked for Maharani told us, “There was such a committee for women at Maharani Company, but that was only for namesake. They tortured women on the committee so much that they were forced to quit.”

None of the brands or export companies responded to our queries at the time of airing of the report.

But Gautam Nair, the head of one of the Gurgaon garments association said, “We are subject to compliance audits by the international brands we work with. And the international brands are very sensitive to having a congenial work environment, having a work ethics and norms which are in line with the existing laws and in some cases meet and exceed Indian laws. And sexual harassment in work place is a very very important part of the audits we do.”

Several women told us that when the brands come to conduct audits, the women are tutored to present a sanitised impression of their experience.

At any rate, those who try and speak up may have to face humiliation, or a swift end to their job.

Manjula, a garment worker in Bangalore, choking back tears, told us how she was involved in a local union. For that she was repeatedly harassed by her employers, and finally made to leave.