Violence against women workers in industries like garment manufacturing is rooted in gender inequality and power imbalances. Women face multi-layered risks as they are often migrants, from oppressed backgrounds, and the sole breadwinners for their families. They comprise 90% of factory workers but less than 5% of supervisors or managers. Low wages that are barely above minimum wage, long work hours, strict attendance policies, and lack of job security or benefits compound the exploitation women face. Unions that could advocate for better conditions are discouraged by factories. Comprehensive reforms are needed across government, industry, and civil society to establish fair wages, rights to organize, and mechanisms to prevent and address gender-based violence in the workplace.

1. Violence against women workers rooted in
gender subordination
Anita Cheria
11 October 2013

2. Violence against women workers rooted
in gender subordination
 Be it religious institutions, sportspersons, scientific
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establishments, defence personal, industrial workers or domestic
workers… violence against women rooted in gender subordination is
rampant.
When the work place hierarchy reinforces gender subordination the
violence is more severe, consistent, continuous and at times heinous.
Multiple vulnerabilities always reinforce subordination and violence…
age, caste, patriarchal biases being particularly severe in the Indian
context, in addition to class.
A skewed production line and salary structure are added on top of this
exploitative structure, further intensifying it.
How the factory labour is valued, how the other services in the supply
chain are valued or devalued, all reinforce the exploitation of women
working in the spinning and garment factories.

3. India’s apparel industry: salient features
 Some critical factors relevant for today’s discussion
(Nothing new).
 India’s domestic apparel market is estimated at Rs.
2,000 billion
 The unorganised sector accounts for more than half of
the market
 India’s apparel industry is expecting to grow to Rs.
4,000 billion by 2018.

4. Workers in the garment sector in
Bangalore
 90% of floor workers are women.
 With little or no family/social support.
 With little or no property to their name.
 90% percent of the women are migrants, coming to
the city out of distress.
 Most of them oppressed/single or women headed
families with them as the sole breadwinner.

5. Multi-layered violence
As women workers they face violence as
 Women.
 Workers.
 Women workers rooted in gender subordination.
This arises from and manifests as being
 The least paid.
 Not represented by a union.
 Part of a globalised production chain (where rights violation can
be distanced and hidden as good business practice).
 A migrant.
And is compounded by
 Violence related to gender assertion.
 Social pressure and patriarchal families.

6. The whos and the hows….
 Does the factory do all this to the women? No!
 What it does is ensure the women remain that way…
and intensifies it with precision and the latest
management and technological tools… like the
‘enhanced interrogation techniques’.
 How does the garment factory do that?
 How do the rest of us ensure it?
 How can be help break this cycle of oppression?

7. Salary
 The maximum wage is as close to the legal minimum wage
as possible.
 According to a recent report based on Consumer Price
Index (CPI), Bangalore, a major hub for export of premium
garments from India, is also the costliest city to live in.
 A person working under the Central Government’s
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in
Karnataka’s rural areas is entitled to a wage of Rs. 150 per
day.
 A person working in the apparel industry in Bangalore
receives only Rs. 22 more for a day’s work.

8. The factory situation(practise and policy)
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Stress.
10-12 hours of work.
Repetitive work, most often in one position with no break.
A management that tracks them by the second.
A workplace where toilet breaks are timed, recorded and
tracked.
A five minute delay in reporting in the mornings for two
days, half day salary is cut.
The 14 days of stipulated leave is not easy to take.
There is an attendance bonus of Rs 200-600 if you don’t take
any leave.
While the world talks of work life balance that does not seem to
apply here.

9. Disposable human machines…
 The sector works with an assumption that it workers are
disposable and dispensable.
 Their survival, health and dignity are not worth investing
in.
 No job security, no concern for human factors and
ergonomics.
‘Every hour they keep asking how much we have produced. If
the production is not sufficient in their view, they announce
our names on the mikes. They abuse us in foul
language, “Have you come here to die, woman?” they ask.’
~ Rukmini V. P., Garment Workers’ Union Leader.

10. The built in bias in the salary structure
 Floor workers—cutters, tailors, packers—earn an
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average of Rs 3,500-5,500 /month.
The supervisors and managers earn anything from Rs
50,000 to 3,00,000.
The difference is 10 to 60 times more.
Minimum wage for the industry is the consolidated
wage.
Basic pay is almost always below minimum wage.

11. Built in bias in the staff structure
 Women as % of shop floor workers: 90%.
 Women as % of supervisors: 3—5%.
 Women as % of production managers: NIL.
 Women as % of manufacturers: NIL.

12. Partnerships
 The Government of Karnataka has the ‘Suvarna Vastra
Policy 2008—2013’
 One objective is to improve the income levels of workers
dependent on this industry.
 Five years have gone by and workers have had no experience
of this concern.
 Every government announces new textile policy with
attractive incentives to textile industries and to make the
sector globally competitive, but no emphasis to support
the over five lakh women who support this sector.
 The new policy speaks of textile parks which have similar
perks as SEZs and EPZs which have the dubious distinction
of compromising on labour rights.

13. Everyone is complicit…
 The government supports the industry.
 The industry supports the economy.
 The manufacturers support each other.
 The consumers don’t seem to complain.

14. The right to unionise… but only for the
manufacturers (a)
 The apparel industry association is The Clothing
Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI).
 It collaborates with the government in matters of
policy, Sales Tax, Octroi, Entry Tax, VAT, export policy &
procedures.
 CMAI president Rahul Mehta said India will be able to
achieve apparel export worth US$ 17 billion this fiscal
year (registering a 15 percent growth in the first two
months of financial year 2013-14 compared to the
corresponding period of last fiscal.

15. The right to unionise… but only for the
manufacturers (b)
 The right of factory workers to organise and collectively
bargain through unions is denied.
 Anyone taking an initiative on those lines is either
discouraged, eased out, shifted, shunted or even paid to
stay out of the factory… as in the case of Rukmini.
 Getting together to unionise for their rights is a far-fetched
dream for these women as raising a voice against
physical, verbal or sexual abuse means to lose their jobs
and hence their livelihood.
‘They touch these young girls while talking, box their ears, hit
them on their head. Even locking eyes with a woman can be
sexual harassment according to the Vishakha judgment’
~Rukmini.

16. The right to unionise… but only for the
manufacturers (c)
 Associations are almost always made with a purpose
to increase collective bargaining, better engagement
and negotiating with others ‘who matter’.
 Mr. Mehta said India’s apparel industry has showing
positive growth, after a year of stagnation, mainly on
account of the imposition of the 10% excise duty last
year.
 In contrast ‘Workers have stopped coming to the
courts. There used to be six labour courts in
Bangalore, it's reduced to three’.
AJ Srinivasan, labour rights advocate

17. The right to unionise… but only for the
manufacturers (d)
 When organization is a necessity for successful set of
manufacturers, why is it wrong for workers to
associate?
 Does not the section of society characterised by so
many vulnerabilities need an association to discuss
their issues and protect its rights?

18. The government
 Government apathy (laxity on the part of regulatory
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and law enforcing authorities).
The police and labour department, though armed
with a number of favourable laws and regulations to
ensure labour rights have a dismal track record.
The checking is nominal, cases registered are marginal
and convictions nil.
Few staff are deployed for this work.
Fewer are competent.
Competence and dedication are a rarity.

19. Getting our act together
 Only civil society response ( consumer response in particular) makes a
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difference.
Accept the existence of supply chain violence. The present production chain is
inherently violent and needs to be totally changed.
Recognise and identify forms of violence in garment factories.
Support the right of workers to collective bargaining (This includes forming
and strengthening their associations, in particular women only unions.
Without control of the shop floor, the rights of the workers—least of all
women workers—cannot be protected).
Implement policy and procedures to combat sexual harassment, including
union advocates, hotlines and services to support workers experiencing sexual
harassment at work.
Negotiate change through social dialogue and fair trade.
Training and mass awareness to make a difference.
Civil society certification.
Ensure working permanent statutory mechanisms with periodic review and
civil society and union participation.

20. What it entails (a)
 More than discussions and statements.
 Commitment can be tracked through a clear allotment
of time, finance and human resources to cover costs
and services.
 Time for training of workers and management.
 Organising women workers facing multiple
vulnerabilities may not be ‘profitable’ within a
simplistic definition.
 So cost and profitability will need to be defined with
more realistic indicators.

21. What it entails (b)
 Multi-stakeholder partnership.
 Building alliances, working in coalition and running
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joint activities.
Government—Industry—Labour—Civil Society
partnership.
‘Government’ would include various government
mechanisms: Labour department, Women’s
Commission.
Scale and critical mass to make a difference.
Industry-wide engagement by all stakeholders.