Struggle within the Struggle: Voices of women garment workers
Sexual harassment at the workplace is by now well understood as a form of gender discrimination at work, and a violation of the basic principles of equality and dignity ensured by our Constitution. On 23 April 2013, sixteen years after the landmark Vishaka judgment of 1997, the Parliament of India enacted The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, which was subsequently notified by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on 9 December 2013. In recent years, sexual harassment at the workplace has increasingly come to be recognised as a cause of concern, as it violates basic principles of gender equality and labour rights in the framework of these being inalienable human rights of all workers alike.
Though not yet covered by any specific international instrument, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Committee of Experts considers ‘sexual harassment’ to fall within the scope of the ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No.111), and the Committee on the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has also qualified it as a form of discrimination on the basis of sex, and as a form of violence against women.
2. This report is envisaged to understand the on-ground-
situation with regard to workplace sexual harassment of
women workers in the garment industry of Gurgaon. It
tries to offer insights on the everyday reproduction of
inequality on the garment factory shop-floor, and
examines questions of safe and secure workspaces for
women. It is hoped that findings from the report will
enable a process of dialogue between factory
managements, global brands, trade unions and NGOs to
creategender-sensitiveworkplaces.
Since 2006, the Society for Labour and Development (SLD),
based in New Delhi, has been focusing on different
aspects of labour rights. It believes in equitable
development through social and economic well-
being of workers, especially of migrant workers with a
human rights and gender perspective. Labour studies are
one of our many activities that focus on persisting labour
concernswhich needtobeaddressedurgently.
Society for Labour and Development
C-23 (Rear Entrance), First Floor, Hauz Khas.
New Delhi-110016
Phone: +91.11.26525806 Telefax: +91.11.46179959
www.sldindia.org
6. CONTENTS
Preface .................................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction .....................................................................................................................2-6
Women workers’ narratives of sexual harassment.................................................. 7-12
Resisting sexual harassment: ........................................................................................... 13
Struggles at the workplace and beyond .................................................................. 14-18
Concluding analysis and recommendations ........................................................... 19-21
Annexures ...................................................................................................................... 22-23
References.................................................................................................................... 24-25
7. List of Acronyms
CEDAW Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women
CPD Centre for Policy Dialogue
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
FWF Fair Wear Foundation
GATWU Garment and Textile Workers Union
GAWU Garment and Allied Workers Union
ILO International Labour Organization
ISID Institute for Studies in Industrial Development
NCR National Capital Region
NGO Non Governmental Organization
NTUI New Trade Union Initiative
UNFPA United Nations Population Fund
UNLV University of Nevada, Las Vegas
USD United States Dollar
WDP Women’s Development Programme
WTO World Trade Organization
8. 1
PREFACE
Arange of studies on women workers in
export-oriented manufacturing, of
which the garment industry is a classic case,
have documented for a very long time now, a
plethora of shop-floor level issues, such as
low wages, precarious work conditions, lack
of social security benefits, and verbal and
physical abuse. However, these studies only
briefly touch upon the subject of sexual
harassment at work. This can be attributed,
as several scholars, researchers and activists
have argued, to the stigma attached to open
discussions of sexuality, as also to worker
priorities which place a higher emphasis on
aspects like low wages and dismal working
conditions. Yet, as is well-known, sexual
harassment of working women is one of the
means through which gender inequality at the
workplace is produced and reproduced. In
this context, this study broadly seeks to
investigate the forms in which female
garment workers experience sexual
harassment on the shop-floor, with specific
reference to the garment industry in Gurgaon.
It tries to generate a set of insights on the
everyday manifestations and complexities in
the life of women workers in the garment
industry and examines its implications with a
‘gender and human rights’ perspective.
The study has been made possible by a grant
from the Ford Foundation, to whom we are
deeply indebted. Without this support, we
could not have moved forward in our pursuit.
I begin by thanking the women workers who
participated in this study, who welcomed us
into their homes and communities and gave
so generously of their time.
I am grateful to Eesha Kunduri,
research team coordinator, for her
understanding and commitment
towards issues of gender and labour
rights that enabled her to design the
study and prepare the final report.
My sincere thanks to Anushree Jairath
and Radhika Uppal, who assisted with
the fieldwork and meticulously
transcribed the interview recordings.
The data collection process was
deeply enriched by the insightful field
notes that they wrote.
The fieldwork was made possible by
the untiring energies of Santosh,
Anita, Meeta and Elizabeth, of Nari
Shakti Manch, Gurgaon, who
networked and built contacts with the
women in the communities where this
research was carried out.
Anannya Bhattacharjee, President of
the Garment and Allied Workers
Union (GAWU) has been
instrumental in pioneering the cause
of workplace sexual harassment in the
Gurgaon region, and in asking some
of the hard questions that this study
seeks to unravel. We thank her for
inspiring us to dig deeper into the
micro-reality of women garment
workers, the resilience that keeps them
going and for giving us freedom and
space to formulate the research
design.
Sunila Singh,
Society for Labour and
Development.
9. 2
INTRODUCTION
Sexual harassment at the workplace
is by now well understood as a
form of gender discrimination at
work, and a violation of the basic
principles of equality and dignity
ensured by our Constitution. On 23
April 2013, sixteen years after the
landmark Vishaka judgment of 1997,
the Parliament of India enacted The
Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act, 2013, which was
subsequently notified by the Ministry
of Women and Child Development
on 9 December 2013. In recent years,
sexual harassment at the workplace
has increasingly come to be
recognised as a cause of concern, as
it violates basic principles of gender
equality and labour rights in the
framework of these being inalienable
human rights of all workers alike.
Though not yet covered by any
specific international instrument, the
International Labour Organization’s
(ILO) Committee of Experts
considers ‘sexual harassment’ to fall
within the scope of the ILO
Discrimination (Employment and
Occupation) Convention, 1958
(No.111), and the Committee on the
Convention on Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) has also qualified
it as a form of discrimination on the
basis of sex, and as a form of
violence against women.
The United Nations Framework on
Business and Human Rights
emphasizes the importance of ‘human
rights due diligence’ – identifying and
remedying possible human rights problems
in supply chains, even if those problems
are not immedi-ately obvious. However,
key features of Business and Human Rights
framework broadly indicate: i) Monitoring
companies causing harm by directly
abusing human rights, or by colluding with
others who violate human rights. ii)
Ensuring business to follow the global
standards to address the ‘human rights
responsibilities and obligations’ of both
states and companies. As a minimum
requirement, all companies should respect
all human rights, regardless of the sector,
region, context in which they operate. iii)
Impart information to companies on
human rights aspects to support ‘risk
management’ at work.
This growing national and international
concern with workplace sexual harassment is
even more pertinent in the backdrop of
numerous debates over women’s labour force
participation, and questions of safe and
conducive working environments for them.
However, there exist a limited number of
studies that specifically address the
phenomenon as a subject of critical inquiry.
This study is a conscious attempt to fill this
lacuna by seeking to unravel the question of
sexual harassment at workplace, with specific
reference to women workers in the garment
industry of Gurgaon.
The unorganised sector apparel (garment)
market is estimated to grow to Rs.4000 billion
by 2018 (Cheria, 2013). It is only legitimate
to estimate that the number of women
employees will increase in proportion to the
10. 3
overall growth of the industry. A ‘note’ on
Indian textiles and clothing exports by the
Union textile ministry dated March 26, 2012,
pegged the turnover of the textile industry
at USD 55 billion at current prices, with
domestic demand accounting for 64 per cent.
WTO data on international trade ranked India
as the third largest global textile exporter,
coming up behind China and the European
Union (EU); and the world’s sixth largest
clothing exporter after China, the EU, Hong
Kong, Bangladesh and Turkey (Achanta,
2013). “Yet, the people toiling to achieve these
figures get minimal benefits” (ibid.), not to
speak of the workplace hazards that women
employees particularly face, sexual
harassment being one of these.
Sexual harassment and the law
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013,
defines sexual harassment as “includ[ing] any
one or more of the following unwelcome acts
or behaviour (whether directly or by
implication) namely:
(i) physical contact and advances; or
(ii) a demand or request for sexual favours;
or
(iii) making sexually coloured remarks; or
(iv) showing pornography; or
(v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal
or non-verbal conduct of sexual
nature.”
The Act requires each employer of a
workplace to constitute an ‘Internal
Complaints Committee’ to investigate
complaints of sexual harassment, and in cases
where the Internal Complaints Committee
cannot be constituted, on account of the
establishment having less than 10 employees
or if the complaint is against the employer,
mandates appropriate authorities at
the district level to constitute a ‘Local
Complaints Committee’, to probe
complaints of sexual harassment. The
Act caters to the needs of both the
organized and unorganized sectors of
the economy, and the definition of a
workplace is broad-ranging, and is
applicable to government bodies,
private and public sector
organisations, non-governmental
organisations, organisations carrying
on commercial, vocational,
educational, entertainment related,
industrial, financial activities, hospitals
and nursing homes, educational
institutes, sports institutions and
stadiums used for training individuals,
and a dwelling or a home (in case of
domestic workers). A workplace also
covers within its scope places visited
by employees during the course of
employment or for reasons arising
out of employment - including
transportation provided by the
employer for the purpose of
commuting to and from the place of
employment.
The underlying principles of the Act
come from the Vishaka guidelines laid
down by the Supreme Court of India
in 1997. The landmark judgement
arose on account of a writ petition
filed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of
the Constitution of India, brought as
a class action by a group of activists
and NGOs. The context of the writ
petition was the incident of the brutal
gang rape of Bhanwari Devi, a saathin
(grassroots social worker) with the
Women’s Development Programme
(WDP) of the government of
11. 4
Rajasthan, by a group of upper caste
men when she attempted to prevent
a child marriage in that particular
upper caste community.1
The judgment noted that “the incident
reveals the hazards to which a working
woman may be exposed and the
depravity to which sexual harassment
can degenerate; and the urgency for
safeguards by an alternative
mechanism in the absence of
legislative measures.” The judgement,
which has been hailed as path
breaking and progressive, drew upon
the Indian Constitution and the
Convention on Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), which was ratified
by India on June 25, 1993, to argue
that sexual harassment undermined
‘gender equality’, and ‘right to life and
liberty’ (Vishaka and others V. State
of Rajasthan and others, 1997). Thus,
the guidelines marked significant
departure from the earlier discourse
on sexual harassment in India, by
invoking the language of
constitutional rights and equality. As
Naina Kapur (2013), has observed,
“Women’s experience of un-welcome
sexual conduct was no longer a
patronising moral transgression of her
“modesty”, it was sexual harassment
– a violation of her constitutional
equality” (p. 28).
Research context and background
analysis
This research is a pointed endeavour
to contribute to the discourse on
sexual harassment at workplace, through the
lived experiences of women workers in the
garment factories of Gurgaon. Situated in the
National Capital Region of Delhi (NCR),
Gurgaon has emerged since mid-1980s as a
major site for the production and export of
readymade garments. At present, garment
units are concentrated around Udyog Vihar
Phase I to VI in Gurgaon, and at Manesar.
Industrial work is driven by a pool of migrant
workers, hailing largely from the states of
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Roy, 2009). Official
estimates suggest that the industry employs
about 94,158 workers (see Annexure three).
While data on the proportion of women in
total garment manufacturing in the region is
not available, studies suggest that women
constitute barely 3 per cent of the workforce
in the garment industry in the NCR
(Barrientos, Mathur & Sood, 2010).
The lack of official data notwithstanding, the
field engagement of the Society for Labour
and Development in the Gurgaon region
appears to suggest the presence of a fairly
significant number of women workers
employed in the garment factories, who are
not necessarily visible when we take into
account estimates or shares of the workforce.
In India, 70 per cent of the 7 million workers
in garment factories are women. In
Bangladesh 80 per cent of the 3.6 million
garment factory workers are women.
Approximately 60 per cent of the factory
workers have experienced some type of
harassment at work, ver-bal abuse or physical
abuse. (Fair Wear Foundation, 2013.)
It is the very lives of these women workers,
and their specific experiences and challenges
as women workers on the shop-floor,
especially with regard to the phenomenon of
workplace sexual harassment that this study
seeks to unpack. This study is exploratory in
1
For a detailed account of the case, see Sinha
(2003).
12. 5
nature and our intention is not to arrive at
statistical correlations or generalisations, but
rather to be able to generate a set of insights
to understand the ‘everyday’ reality of
women’s working conditions in garment
manufacturing.
Research Design
This study draws upon what Naila Kabeer
(2000) calls ‘testimony-based hypothesis
testing’. (p. 405). In her study, Kabeer (2000)
seeks to understand factors pertaining to
Bangladeshi women’s labour market decisions
in two different geographical settings of the
global garment industry- factory workers in
Dhaka and home-based Bangladeshi women
workers in London. Through paying close
attention to the narratives of women workers,
she tries to unpack the complexity of factors
that drive Bangladeshi women’s employment
decisions in these two varied forms and
contexts of work, across distinct geographical
and cultural contexts. On her methodology,
she writes:
…rather than relying on statistical correlations
to support or reject the hypothesis about
women’s labour market behavior thrown up
by the social science literature, I focused on
asking women for their own accounts of how
their labour market decisions were made and
the impact it had on their lives. (Kabeer, 2000,
p. 405)
In our study, the adaption of such a
methodology has been particularly relevant
to interrogate a phenomenon around which
there is much stigma and silence. As Ruth
Pearson and Gill Seyfang (2002) note, “Sexual
harassment is less widely reported and
notoriously difficult to research” (p. 47). In
a study on the sexual harassment of women
workers in the garments and electronics
industry of Bangladesh, Dina M. Siddiqi
(2003) observes the difficulty of
researching the phenomenon, as
women workers are reluctant to speak
on the subject, on account of “the
stigma attached to open discussions
of sexuality, and the potential loss of
honor involved” (p. 2). Needless to
say, as researchers, we were
confronted with these challenges right
from the start of fieldwork for the
study.
As the objective of this study is not
to make statistical generalisations
about the prevalence or magnitude of
sexual harassment of women workers
in the garment industry of Gurgaon,
but rather to unpack the complexity
of the phenomenon as it emerges in
the everyday lives of the women
workers, a testimony centered
approach seemed most appropriate.
For this reason, early on in the study,
we decided to conduct in-depth
interviews with a small, yet
purposively selected sample of
women workers, who could give us
insights into the varied forms in which
sexual harassment manifests on the
shop floor.
Fieldwork for the study was carried
out between October 2013 and
January 2014, with the assistance of
Nari Shakti Manch (Women’s
Empowerment Platform), a
grassroots initiative of the Society for
Labour and Development that has
been working to organise migrant
women working in the informal sector
in Gurgaon, Haryana. Over the course
of approximately four months, the
research team interacted with forty
women workers living in the areas of
13. 6
Kapashera, Surya Vihar, and
Dundahera, most of whom are
engaged primarily in informal wage
work in the nearby garment factories
of Gurgaon2
. In the initial stages, we
met workers in the settlements where
they reside through Nari Shakti
Manch’s field workers, and mostly
interacted with women in groups of
five to seven, and held discussions
with them, which were largely of a
conversational nature. We introduced
ourselves as researchers whose
objective was to study about the lives
of women working in the garment
factories of Gurgaon, and the specific
challenges encountered by them.
Quite naturally, the first concerns
shared by most women were
concerned with low wages, long
working hours, physically taxing work
conditions, harsh living conditions,
and the dual burden of managing
household responsibilities. As women
opened up about their life/work
histories, migration histories and
experiences in the city, the research
team went on to ask them more
specific questions about the number
of male-female workers in the
factories where they worked, how they
saw their own position vis-à-vis male
workers, their perceptions of garment
factory work and of the shop-floor
milieu in particular. These conversations drew
mixed reactions and varied responses from
the women we interacted with. Some workers
spoke very articulately about experiences of
shop-floor level sexual harassment, while
others hesitated and responded somewhat
bleakly, and few others maintained silence
while giving us understanding nods. In this
study, we have attempted to read the silences
as much as the vociferous accounts, for both
have their own relevance towards
understanding the larger questions being
raised in this study.
On basis of these interactions, we specifically
drew a purposively selected sample of ten
garment workers, and one domestic worker
(formerly a garment worker), whom we met
subsequently for in-depth interviewing, and
whose testimonies comprise the major body
of data for this study. All the interviews were
voice-recorded with the knowledge of those
being interviewed and subsequently
transcribed. It was possible only to meet
workers on Sundays or late evenings during
weekdays briefly. In most cases, workers were
interviewed more than once, based on the
notes and transcripts from the first interview,
to probe in more depth themes arising out
of the previous interaction. In certain cases,
the specific issue of sexual harassment was
raised only during the second round of
interviewing, where in the informants were
more comfortable and familiar with the
members of the research team. In addition
to the testimonies presented herein, we have
drawn upon insights generated from three
focus group discussions and a meeting with
members of the Garment and Allied Workers
Union (GAWU), an independent trade union
based in Gurgaon, Haryana, wherein some
of the specific issues pertaining to harassment
at the workplace were discussed..
2
While the focus of this study was specifically on
women workers in the Gurgaon garment industry,
we also interacted with few home-based workers,
and those with past experience of work in garment
factories (and currently working in some other
sector such as domestic work, or briefly
unemployed) as their narratives offered insights
into how women perceive and understand
garment work, and the sexualised nature of certain
workspaces, the export-oriented garment factories
in this case.
14. 7
WOMEN WORKERS’
NARRATIVES OF SEXUAL
HARASSMENT
This chapter highlights the forms in which
sexual harassment manifests against
female garment workers on the shop floor.
It examines how workers articulate and
explain factory level harassment, drawing
upon both from the present study’s narratives
of sexual harassment and findings from other
studies on the garment industry. The chapter
discusses the two major forms in which sexual
harassment occurs- as forms of verbal and
physical abuse, and as quid pro quo
harassment.
Verbal and physical abuse
Verbal abuse is the most common and
widespread form of harassment experienced
by women garment workers on an almost
every day basis. It is also a mode of labour
discipline that is routinely employed by
supervisors and floor in-charges, who hurl
abuses at workers literally to whip them to
meet production targets. Despite its
widespread prevalence, verbal abuse was one
of the most challenging aspects of this study,
since most women did not readily seem to
recognize it as a form of harassment, arguing
instead that it was common practice in the
garment industry3
. While verbal harassment
may not appear to be threatening in the first
instance, and may be seen by workers as an
altogether subtle or less significant form of
harassment, it has implications for the
production and reproduction of the
sexualised nature of the factory space. As
Dina M. Siddiqi (2003) notes in a study of
the sexual harassment endured by
Bangladeshi women workers in the
garment and electronics industry, “the
highly sexualized vocabulary and body
language that supervisors, line chiefs,
production managers and others use
to discipline female workers creates a
hostile, intimidating and sexually
charged environment” (p. 34). This
reinforces the precept that ‘verbal
abuse’ is often used as a tool to
dehumanize and denude the dignity
of women at large, much more of
those women who work under
unequal power equations as can be
seen in the garment industry.
The verbal abuse that workers
encounter on a daily basis within the
factory space is articulated very
powerfully by Anusha4
, who has been
working as a tailor in the production
department of a garment factory for
the last five years. Anusha shares how
everyone from co-workers to
supervisors, line and floor in-charges
appropriate factory-level symbols and
terminology to pass sexually coloured
remarks and make unwelcome
advances at women workers. This is
brought forth in the following excerpt
of a conversation with Anusha, and
her co-worker Mamta:
Anusha: The work at the garment factories
is such that every word has two meanings.
The behavior of men in the factories becomes
inappropriate through words only. They will
say, “maal bohot accha hai, kya quality hai!
(the material is very good, what quality!).
We know where this is headed, and what
this means. Supervisor, master, in-charge, all
3
This is not to say however, that workers perceive
verbal abuse as acceptable
4
Names of all workers cited herein have been
changed to protect their identity.
15. 8
of them resort to such type of loaded lines
with double meanings. They will say, “dhaaga
ched mein nahi jaa raha hai? Daal nahi
paa rahe hain? Hum daal de? Ched nahi
dikh raha hai?” (“are you unable to put the
thread through the hole? Should we do it for
you? Are you unable to see the hole?”)
Mamta: If a new girl comes to the company,
they will say, “maal dekho kitna badiya hai”
(“look at the material, it is so good”).
Anusha: The workers in the nearby line will
say, “Master ji, the maal (material) is going
over there, call that (her) in our line, no? If
this girl does not know how to work, so what,
we will teach her, we shall take care of her
production”. If that girl does not come to
work, they will say, “aaj kal maal nahi aa
raha yaar” (“the material is not coming these
days mate”).
The above testimony by Anusha and
Mamta indicates the sexualised
atmosphere that pervades as a matter
of routine and everydayness, so much
so that most workers normalize it and
pass it off as hasi-mazaak (jokes). The
testimony reveals how work-related
symbols such as the dhaaga (thread) or
the use of the term maal 5
(material)
are invoked so as to make remarks of
a sexually explicit nature, while
attempting to hide under the guise of
these very terms. However, as Anusha
rightly points out, women can sense
where the conversation is headed,
implying clearly that no benefit of
doubt can be extended. The use of
sexual expletives at the workplace is
not uncommon, and a range of
studies have documented the rampant
use of abusive and
sexually charged language in the garment
industry (Siddiqi, 2003; Fair Wear Foundation,
2013; Lyimo, 2010). That this phenomenon
cannot be overlooked or by-passed as mere
words has been vociferously argued by
feminist legal scholar MacKinnon (1996):
Construing these events as “speech”-in
terms of their form as expression and their
content as ideas apparently looks like what it
is: a transparent ploy to continue the bigoted
abuse and avoid liability…The harm done
by this behavior is importantly contextual,
certainly, but it is implicitly recognized that
social life occurs only in social context, and
this is a social harm. That these experiences
differ for harasser and harassed is not denied
either; this difference seems only to support
the fact of their unequal positions in a single
shared system of social meaning, further
supporting the act as one of inequality. (pp.
47-48).
Narratives of verbal abuse
”They hurl abuses at workers’ families, at
their mothers and sisters, if the work is not
completed.”
”We have such huge boards outside our
company stating that abusing is not
allowed, that it is an offence and punishable
by law, but the floor in-charge himself hurls
abuses all the time. If the in-charge himself
hurls abuses, then to whom do we
complain about the master and
supervisor?”
“One needs to take the jokes of the seniors
in the right spirit, if anyone answers back,
they would be thrown out of the
company”.”
5
In Hindi, the term ‘maal’ is slang for a beautiful
girl.
16. 9
The other day I was feeling very cold, so I
wore two sweaters, and tied a dupatta
(scarf) over my head. One guy, much
younger to me, exclaimed, “now at least
take your sweater off, it has turned hot”.
Apart from the forms of verbal abuse
described, it is also pertinent to take
cognizance of the forms of verbal
harassment that are not sexually explicit in
nature, but are inherently gendered, since they
convey ideas nonetheless, and undermine
equality (ibid.). The following remarks by
Mandira and Uma bring this out:
Hasi-mazak toh hota hi rehta hai (Joking is
common). If one has to feed the stomach out of
compulsion, then one needs to tolerate all kinds of
jokes. Male co-workers will say, “tum aisi ho ki tum
ghar se nikalti ho (you are the type of women who
have ventured out of your homes!). Our wives don’t
leave their homes? Your daughter also works here?”
According to them, working outside home is wrong.
Mandira and Uma have been working in the
stitching unit of particular garment factory
for the past ten and six years respectively. We
met them on a sunny Sunday afternoon in
the winter of 2013 on the terrace of the
settlement where they lived, and spoke with
them at length. It is worthwhile to note that
throughout the conversation, they expressed
a certain reluctance to share or reveal
experiences of a sexually explicit nature, yet
remarkably responded to most of our
questions6
with a matter-of-fact
understanding, implying that they silently
knew what we were trying to uncover.
Reluctant to open up, they initially stressed
how the factory that they work in had a very
conducive work environment, and that they
seldom faced problems. Towards a later part
of the conversation, however, when we
briefly touched upon the question of
jokes, they remarked on the normalcy
of the phenomenon, and argued that
if one had to survive, one needed to
tolerate all kinds of jokes. The
category ‘all kinds of jokes’, to us,
points towards the lewd and sexually
explicit remarks and comments that
women workers seem to have
internalized as part of the routine
happenings on the shop floor, some
of which has been pointed above, and
which Mandira and Uma seem to be
hesitant in stating explicitly.
It is interesting to note how in the
same vein, they also point to
comments by male co-workers which
are not explicitly sexual, and which on
the surface, are interpreted by these
women as implying gender-based
valuation of work, as they note that
their male co-workers perceive
working outside as inherently bad. At
a deeper level, however, these remarks
convey notions, ideas and value
judgments about where women ought
not to be (‘outside’- the factory in this
context), and where they ought to be
(the home- the reference to their own
wives not stepping outside the
boundary of their houses). We suggest
that through the medium of these
remarks, male co-workers remind
their female counterparts that they
6
During the course of the interview, most of our
questions revolved around asking women workers
what kind of issues and hassles they faced while
at work, male to female ratio in the factory, to
begin with, and it is only towards a much later
part of the conversation, that we used the term
hasi-mazaak to see if it holds any meaning for the
workers’ conceptualization of factory-level
harassment.
17. 10
have no legitimate business outside of
their home, and in doing so, reproduce
the factory as a ‘space of respect’ only
for the male gender. Further, we
suggest that such remarks are also
rooted in socially constructed notions
about women who work in the
garment industry as inherently sexual
beings, a phenomenon that we discuss
in the next chapter.
Closely connected with incidences of
verbal abuse are experiences of
physical abuse. According to Anusha,
the incidences of verbal abuse are
further compounded with cases of
supervisors and co-workers touching
them in inappropriate places, such as
hitting them in the chest and walking
away, and then behaving as if they
have accidently walked into them.
In-charge or manager asks us to work quickly
by patting us on our thighs and waist (enacts
this out to the interviewer by patting herself).
In the export line, we so often notice that
when a women worker is deeply engrossed in
her work, the in-charge comes to speak with
her and (as if) in an attempt to draw her
attention, he makes bold to touch her in
inappropriate places (Anusha, tailor).
In one of the focus group discussions,
as the women narrated forms of
verbal and physical abuses
encountered in the factories, one of
the women got up, and leaned over
another women’s shoulder, and began
enacting how a line supervisor would
‘teach’ a young woman the ‘proper’
way of stitching a piece. Through her
enactment, she tried pointing out how
line supervisors or in-charges touch
young women inappropriately, on the
pretext of teaching or training them, and
stressed that such incidences are likely to
happen more with young women and girls.
While the relationship between workers’ age
and their vulnerability to sexual harassment
has not been investigated in this study, such
anecdotal evidence, nevertheless, offers us
insights into the forms in which supervisors
and in-charges use their power and position
in the hierarchy of the shop-floor to engage
in unwelcome sexual conduct. The
phenomenon of male supervisors physically
abusing women workers by slapping them,
pulling their hair, and hitting and touching
them inappropriately has also been
documented in other studies on the
prevalence of sexual harassment in the
garment industry (Siddiqi, 2003; Lyimo, 2010;
Fair Wear Foundation 2013). Along with the
narratives of verbal abuse, the physical abuse
experienced by women garment workers
points to the prevalence of highly sexualised
modes of labour control and discipline.
Quid Pro Quo Harassment
Whenever they (contractors/master/in-charge) hire
a woman, they make it a point to tell her that she
will have to obey everything they ask her to do,
otherwise she cannot work in the factory. They take
advantage of poor girls. Masters, in-charges, and
contractors think that this young girl from the village
is naïve and innocent, so she will listen to them with
no questions asked. Many a times these men take her
down the wrong road, and many of them even go
along and go astray. You understand right what I am
saying? (Sarita line in-charge)
Very often it happens that the contractor tells a
(woman) worker, “Alright madam, we shall certainly
hire you, but you will have to do some extra work, so
leave early from work tomorrow, take leave by 6 o’
clock, and come along with me.” (Garment worker
at a focus group discussion)
18. 11
Sarita migrated to Gurgaon about fifteen
years ago and has since then worked in
different garment factories as a piece-rated
worker, stitching garments. She was promoted
as a line supervisor in April 2013 and currently
supervises around thirty-five people. In her
narrative of the shop-floor, she makes a
distinction between the line which she
supervises, and the line which is supervised
by a male in-charge, and argues that the latter
is a sexually charged environment- “usme toh
saare aise lafangey log hai” (that line is full of rogue
people). She points out that the supervisors and
masters set very high targets for workers and
pressurise them through means of sexually
explicit language and behavior, as also sexual
intimidation and coercion. Young women
workers coming from a rural background,
who are freshly recruited into industrial work,
are seen as naïve and innocent, and become
soft targets of the supervisors, masters and
line in-charges. According to Sarita, the hiring
of these women itself has an inbuilt sexual
implication- that workers must agree to listen
to the demands of the contractor, supervisor
or master tailor, else they would not be able
to keep their jobs. She explains, “These masters
oppress (women) workers. If one is willing to roam
around and socialise with them, go to their room and
have fun with them, only then can one work in the
factory, otherwise not”.
The distinction Sarita tries to draw between
the line supervised by her, and the line
supervised by a male should not be mistakenly
read to imply that it is only male supervisors
who sexually coerce and intimidate female
workers. In one of the focus groups, women
noted that female supervisors, in many cases,
also coerce women workers into engaging in
sexual activity with a male supervisor or
contractor, either in return for
economic gains, or in order to
safeguard their own supervisory
position in the factory. The distinction
made by Sarita, thus, must be read in
the specific context of the factory
where she works, and her own
narrative. In this study, Sarita’s
testimony and her acceptance of the
prevalence of quid pro quo sexual
harassment is significant, since given
her own position as a supervisor, she
could have also possibly denied it.
That she brings forth her own
experience as a worker, as a supervisor
and as a member of the Garment and
Allied Workers Union (GAWU) into
the narrative is what, in our view, sets
her apart, and lends credence to the
narrative. It is pertinent to further
mention here that in one of the focus
groups, from which an excerpt is cited
in the beginning of this section, Sarita
was one of the most forthcoming and
vociferous participants, and it was her
participation that steered the group
discussion forward. Nevertheless, the
claim that female supervisors also
coerce workers into sexual liaison with
contractors and supervisors merits
further investigation and qualification.
The idea that young rural women who
are newly recruited are able to work
in the garment industry and sustain
their jobs only if they make
themselves sexually available to the
contractor, supervisor or line in-
charge was stated by other workers in
this study as well, both during the
interviews and through the course of
19. 12
the focus group discussions. That the
hiring of these young women is itself
premised on an exchange of sexual
favours is clearly implied in the
testimonies cited above7
.
Such instances seem to abound in the
garment industry, and as the narratives
suggest, sexual favours to contractors
and supervisors are closely linked to
finding jobs and sustaining them.
Workers have little or no recourse to
resist such sexual advances, as in most
cases, those who raise their voice end
up losing their jobs. The following
testimony by Neeta, a garment
worker, who has been working in the
industry since 2007, about why she left
her previous workplace brings this
out:
There was a woman named Maya, her
contractor told her that if she to agreed to a
sexual liaison with him, then he would pay her a
thousand rupees extra. She then told me that, “didi
(elder sister), the contractor is saying such a thing to
me”. I asked her why she did not take out her slippers
and hit him back. Before the matter escalated, I myself
went up to the contractor and told him that, “none of
us will tolerate such things, this is absolutely wrong,
how could you imagine that because her husband is
not here, so she will agree to do such an unthinkable
act?”. He replied that he never made such remarks,
and that Maya was spreading false rumours. Soon
after he took out an opportunity and fired her. If she
would have agreed to his demands, then he would
have paid her a thousand rupees extra and got her
under his control. It is because of this reason, that
both of us left work from that factory.
Neeta’s account highlights how women who
resist sexual advances by those who hold
power over them (in this case the contractor)
have very few avenues for redressal, despite
legislations being in place. While the co-
worker with whom Neeta stood by was clearly
fired by the contractor, it appears that Neeta
too must have lost her job on account of
raising her voice, though to us, she claimed
she quit as a mark of protest. When we asked
her if she knew about the recent Act, or about
the prevalence of any anti-sexual harassment
committee in her factory, she replied in the
negative. As Neeta’s narrative highlights, the
woman who alleged the contractor of making
sexual advances was not only fired, but her
account of the harassment was completely
dismissed as a lie. Other workers in the study
similarly observed that those who raised their
voices against any form of harassment
(verbal, physical, or quid pro quo) were
shunned, dismissed and in most cases, fired.
7
It is worth mentioning here a conversation that
two members of the research team, Anushree and
Eesha, had as a matter of chance with a woman
while travelling back in the Delhi metro from
fieldwork on a Sunday. As the two were discussing
the day’s fieldwork and thematically writing up
field notes en route, a woman sitting next enquired,
“Are you not from Delhi?” We stated that we had
both grown up and lived in Delhi, although
Anushree was pursuing her studies from
Bangalore. She then asked what we were trying to
study, and as we explained briefly about our
research, she remarked, “You people don’t seem
to know anything. This is common practice. Sexual
favours to the contractor is the very condition on
the basis of which these migrant women are hired.
I know about all these inside stories since my
family used to run a garment factory some years
ago”. Her tone was matter-of-factly, and she
seemed to not approve of our ‘ignorance’ on the
subject. She was reluctant to divulge any further
details about herself or her family background.
To us, however, the short conversation provided
a significant insight, and reinforced from another
angle what the narratives in our study had pointed
out to.
20. 13
Anju’s struggle and resistance against sexual harassment
Anju began work as a tailor in a particular garment factory in February 2013 when
the quality checker started pressurising her for sexual favours. Anju resisted his
advances and continued to work. Then, one day, as she was going to the washroom,
she oversaw the quality checker hand over 500 rupees to the line in-charge, and tell
him, “Anju ki izzat par haath lagao nahi toh usko gate se bahar karo” (Either you violate
Anju’s honour or else throw her out of the factory gate). Anju confronted both the men
verbally, and since then, both the quality checker and supervisor imposed high
production targets on her, repeatedly pointed out mistakes in her work, and
threatened to terminate her.
After several months of harassment, one day as she was entering the factory
premises, the duo passed lewd remarks. Unable to control her anger, Anju started
beating up both men with her slippers. As a consequence, her employment was
terminated and she was paid a final settlement as compensation. Even as she looked
for work elsewhere, the word spread quickly about this incident and employers
were wary of giving her work, factories in the vicinity refused to hire her. “The
seniors got together and fired me. For a couple of days, I found work somewhere else, but soon the
word spread around, and someone remarked that this woman has been physically violent, so
throw her out (yeh lady maar peet karke aayi hai, isko nikal do).”
Anju continued to face physical and sexual assault outside of the factory and in the
locality where she lives. The harassment case has disturbed her mentally, emotionally
and financially.
The Garment and Allied Workers Union (GAWU) intervened in the matter and
filed a case in the labour department. In the initial hearing, the management verbally
accepted before the labour authorities that incidents of sexual harassment indeed
took place in the factory premises. However, they refused to nullify Anju’s
termination, and demonstrated lack of will to constitute an Internal Complaints
Committee as per law. GAWU pursued the case, and after much pressure, the
matter was taken up with the District Level - Local Complaints Committee. At the
time of fieldwork for the study, the matter was pending with the Local Complaints
Committee.
21. 14
RESISTING SEXUAL
HARASSMENT:
STRUGGLES AT THE
WORKPLACE AND
BEYOND
The previous chapter noted that
women who raise their voices
against incidents of sexual harassment
and abuse faced ridicule and the threat
of termination. This chapter
investigates this further, by analyzing
workers’ testimonies of negotiation
and resistance against incidents of
sexual harassment in the backdrop of
the The Sexual Harasssment of Women
at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act, 2013. This chapter
argues that the forms of sexual
harassment that workers have to
negotiate with go far beyond the
workplace, have implications for their
safety in public spaces, and lead to
social stigma and construed notions
of ‘impure’ and morally wrong
women.
Of resistance, job termination and
grievance redressal
Lalita is a garment worker who is well
into her forties, and has been working
in the industry for the past six years.
She narrates an incident wherein a
man followed her into the washroom,
mistaking her to be some other young
woman. When she opened the door
of the washroom and he saw her, he
ran away. She complained about this
incident to the management, arguing
that the person concerned had worked
in the company for long enough to
know the location of the women’s
washroom, and that such behavior was
unacceptable. The company instead fired her.
The management told me that you are maligning
someone’s image, and therefore, please take all your
dues and leave. If anything happens, then it is always
the woman who is blamed (Lalita, tailor).
Prerna is a garment worker who has been
doing tailoring work in Gurgaon since the past
four years. Prior to working as a tailor, she
had worked in the sampling department of a
garment factory in West Delhi. She has
undertaken different kinds of work in the
garment industry, from working as a guard
worker in a garment factory to being a
supervisor of thread-cutting, and checking.
She is extremely vocal about the incidences
of sexual harassment in garment industries,
and narrates to us the following account from
one of her former workplace:
There was an in-charge in the factory, who would say
to everyone, old or young, that I have fallen in love
with you. Once he said that to me as well. I said, Sir,
what is the meaning of sir? Sir is used to address a
senior, I respect you. Magar ek haath se taali nahi
bajti hai (But it is not possible to clap with one hand).
If I don’t fall in love with you, then there is no meaning
in you falling in love with me. Then he asked me to
think over this matter. After some time, he said
something else which I could not tolerate, so I answered
him back firmly. If I am new to a place, I would
keep quiet, but gradually, as I become older, I cannot
keep quiet. Then one day the same senior said to me,
“I am giving you a break, come back after a week”.
I thought to myself, never in my life will I return to
work in your company, and so never returned to this
factory again.
In the above account, we suggest that the in-
charge asking Prerna to think about what he
said to her, and to return after a week’s break,
is a form of implicit job termination. While
22. 15
she was not fired per se, she was asked to return
after a week, on the understanding that she
would think about the in-charge’s advances
(and presumably submit to them). What is
clearly implied in the above mentioned
incident between Prerna and her in-charge is
that to survive in the factory, the former needs
to agree to the demands of the latter, failing
which she may leave the job. The in- charge,
while not asking her to leave directly,
inherently signaled this through the medium
of the ‘break’. That Prerna never chose to
return after the break serves to further
strengthen the premise that the in-charge was
being sexually coercive and gave no choice
to the woman worker. She needs to follow
his dictat or else find another job elsewhere.
When we asked women workers if they were
aware about the enactment of the Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, and that
every workplace is required to constitute an
internal complaints committee under this law,
all of them responded in the negative.
Workers, however, did mention about
speaking to the management, in particular,
the human resource department, about sexual
harassment issues, but to no avail. The
following responses by Anusha and Sarita
highlight the state of the law in practice.
Dekho niyam toh saare bante hain, par vahan tak
koi pohonch nahi pata. (See, the rules are all
formulated, but these don’t reach the people.). If we
complain, then they will comment “only you seem to
have a problem, the rest of the women don’t, why
don’t you leave? That man (referring to the culprit)
has been working here for so many years, no one before
you has complained against him”. At other times if
a complaint is made, then the in-charge will accuse
the women worker by saying, “this woman does not
know how to work, she is no good”. The person against
whom we raise a complaint will thereafter be hounding
us with vengeance and he won’t let us work
peacefully. (Anusha, tailor)
Once few women raised this issue in a meeting
that the in-charge is oppressing young girls
and troubles them, so they (the management)
got rid of the women (who complained). If
one complains to the management, then they
will call the male worker concerned, threaten
him somewhat, and then shift him to another
line so that there can be no further
communication. They suppress and cover up
complaints so that the factory does not get a
bad reputation. (Sarita, line in-charge)
The above statements highlight that
women who speak up and voice their
complaint against incidents of sexual
harassment are victimized further and
face ridicule and the threat of
termination of job. An air of
suppression around speaking up on
these issues prevails, and even though
legal avenues might exist, in practice,
as Anusha argues, it is very difficult
for women to make use of the law, as
their voices of protest are drowned
out, and instead questions on the
credibility of the woman are raised.
Further, as Anju’s case tells us, women
who resist sexual harassment not only
have to deal with job loss and social
stigma, the incidences of sexual
assault and intimidation continue even
outside the workplace. Anju’s
testimony corroborates what Siddiqi
(2003) has argued on the relationship
between workplace harassment and
harassment in public spaces:
The fear of retaliation outside the
workplace also constrains women’s
responses. There is a straightforward
relationship between sexual
23. 16
intimidation or annoyance in the
workplace and the general insecurity
of women in the public sphere.
Women who are harassed by co
workers inside the factory must think
twice about taking their complaints to
the management because of threats
of physical and social retaliation
outside the workplace. For them, the
only option may be to submit silently
or find alternative employment. (p. 46)
From the testimonies in our study, it
appears therefore that the sexual
harassment of female workers in the
garment factories is widespread
and rampant, and those subjected to
harassment have very few avenues to
resist and complain. Does this then
imply that the Sexual Harassment of
Women at Workplace Act, and its
provisions of an Internal Complaints
Committee at every workplace, is
defunct in garment factories in
Gurgaon?8
A team of law students from the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
(UNLV) William S. Boyd School of
Law, along with students of Jawaharlal
Nehru University and Jindal Global
Law School researched into
implementation of the Sexual
Harassment at Work place Act, and
as part of their field research, had the
opportunity to interview
managements of five garment
factories in Gurgaon. Their findings are
documented in Annexure One. It is
interesting to note how four of the five
factories interviewed claimed that an internal
complaints committee existed, and one of
them even provided relevant documentation
of the committee’s functioning to the research
team. Further, it also appears that these
committees were formed as per the Vishaka
guidelines, since they seem to be existing well
before the enactment of the Act. However,
the details of the composition of the
committee lead us to ask whether there is an
informed understanding on part of the
factory managements, since none of the
committees seem to have a third party or
NGO representative, as mandated both by
the Vishaka guidelines and the recently
formulated legislation. Doubts can certainly
be cast over the credibility and functional
accountability of these committees and as a
government official from the Labour
department claimed to the researchers, “What
can we really do? I can go check, but they show me
everything on paper.” (Medina, Short, & Winkler,
2014)
What is disturbing further is that in factories
where Internal Complaints Committees do
exist, incidents of sexual harassment continue
to go unreported. Incidents of verbal abuse
and vulgar writing on the washroom walls,
wherein they have been reported, have been
passed off as ‘minor’ complaints by the
management, indicating a complete lack of
sensitivity and understanding on the matter.
The findings serve to reinforce the
normalization of sexual jokes and verbal
abuse on the shop floor, a phenomenon that
we discussed in the previous chapter, even
on part of factory managements, and
corroborate what the testimonies of workers
in our study reveal.
8
Though not investigated in depth in this study,
the interviews with workers also point to the high
possibility that the vulnerability of women
workers with regard to sexual harassment is
exacerbated by the nature of their employment
which is of an informal character. Most workers
were employed as piece-rated workers through
labour contractors.
24. 17
Social stigma and notions surrounding
women garment workers
Writing about the employment of young rural
women in export-oriented manufacturing, as
early as 1981, Elson and Pearson observed:
Although one form of gender subordination,
the subordination of daughters to their
fathers, may visibly crumble, another form
of gender subordination, that of women
employees to male factory bosses, just as
visibly is built up. Work in world market
factories is organized through a formal
hierarchy with ordinary operators at the
bottom controlled by varying levels of
supervisors and managers. In study after study
the same pattern is revealed: the young female
employees are almost exclusively at the
bottom of this hierarchy; the upper levels of
the hierarchy are almost invariably male. Only
among the lowest level of supervisors is it at
all common to find women. The relationship
of female employees to male bosses is
qualitatively different from the relationship
of male employees to male bosses. One
important feature is that the sexual
element in the relation between female
employee and male boss is not contained
and shaped by kin relations. This is one
of the reasons why factory girls are often
regarded as not quite ‘respectable’. (Elson
& Pearson, 1981, p. 100).
This explanation by the authors continues to
hold relevance today, and especially in the
context of our study, as notions of ‘honour
and respectability’ resurfaced time and again. A
common theme pervading the interviews and
focus group discussions was the notion that
the garment industry (referred to as export
line by the workers) has a bad reputation in
general, and female workers therein are seen
through a negative lens. Sonal, who has been
working as a tailor in a garment
factory for the past five years, shares
with us that she feels ashamed to tell
people about her occupation as a
garment worker, and hides it most of
the time.
My father also does not like this work; he
says that the export line is not good. I don’t
know why, but everyone says that women who
work in the export line are immoral. I
hesitate in telling anyone that I work in this
sector. I undertake two different kinds of
work- I work in the garment factory, but I
am also an SBI agent. If I am at some
social gathering, then I never tell people about
my garment work, as everyone will look at
me negatively. No matter how good someone
is, they will still look at them in a negative
way.
The fear that people would cast
doubts over the sexuality of the
women who work in the garment
industry is also voiced by Lakshmi,
who notes:
We get to hear often and many people do
remark that those who have entered the
export line are no longer pavitr (pure). If
we tell anyone that we work in an export
factory, then they tend not to think well about
us, as if we are women of some strange
disrepute.
The narratives above tell us that
female garment workers not only have
to struggle with the sexualization of
their workplaces, but also have to deal
with social stigma and prevailing
notions of women in the garment
factories as morally of questionable
status, sexually loose, and impure etc.
These notions also possibly drive the
kind of gendered comments that
25. 18
women workers have to endure from
their male co-workers, as was noted
at the beginning of this chapter. An
air of sexualization, thus appears to
surround the lives of women garment
workers, both within and outside of
their workplaces.
Another aspect that starkly came out
in an interview with Charu, a former
garment worker, who explains her
decision to give preference to being a
domestic worker rather than work in
a garment factory, arguing that the roti
(bread) she eats through means of
working in people’s houses is at least
‘honourable’. She explains:
I thought that it is not possible to survive by
working in five houses, since I have four girls
to take care of. I therefore started working
in a company where a female relative used to
work. I worked there properly for a few days,
thereafter the supervisor asked me to work
during the night shift. I refused to go to work
during the night shift. I said that I have young
kids, who will look after them? So he asked
me to leave the work if I could not come
during the night. See, you (addressing the
interviewer) too are a girl, since you asked
me these questions, I am telling you, here in
these companies, only those women can survive
who will listen to seniors. That is why I work
in the houses, I eat half a roti (bread) less,
but at least, I eat it with honour.
Charu’s testimony highlights firstly,
what Siddiqi (2003) terms as ‘the
dangers of the night shift’; a
phenomenon also noted by Sarita, as
she narrates to us an account of a
factory wherein women are forcefully
made to undertake the night shift, and
the gates of the company are shut.
Secondly, what is reinforced rather vividly is
the fact that notions of sexuality are
intrinsically connected to undertaking work
in the garment industry, and hence, in
distinguishing herself from this sexualised
atmosphere, Charu not only tries to break
away from the social stigma, but also
articulates an altogether different meaning of
‘honour’. This confirms what Siddiqi argues
that, “for women workers, the dignity of labor
to which they aspire cannot be disentangled
very easily from their perceptions of modesty
or honor” (p. 49).
Women garment workers, we argue, have to
negotiate with the social constructions of
their work identity, and of their sexuality, and
this multiplies the degree of sexual
harassment that they have to endure, apart
from the shop-floor level harassment. The
sexual harassment of garment workers goes
far beyond the workplace, and hinders their
mobility and respectability in the public
sphere. As the narratives reveal, the social
stigma that surrounds the lives of female
garment workers can have implications for
their self perceptions and dignity, and must
be taken account of, alongside the more
visible/ tangible forms of harassment.
26. 19
CONCLUDING ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The narratives in this study offer us several
insights into the forms of harassment
which women garment workers have to face
as part of their daily working lives. The forms
of harassment, which range from verbal and
physical abuse to sexual coercion and
intimidation, have implications not only for
the well-being and safety of workers at the
level of the shop-floor but extend beyond it.
It seeps into the spaces where they reside, as
women workers struggle against retaliation in
the streets and in the community, when they
raise their voices against factory-level
harassment. It is a part and parcel of the daily
negotiations of their identity as workers, as
they deal with the stigma surrounding women
garment workers as ‘women’ who are not pure
(pavitra) and have gone astray.
The voices of women workers in this study,
while heart-wrenching in numerous ways,
bring forth the remarkable courage that
women garment workers hold in their fight
against highly sexualised and gendered forms
of workplace conduct by seniors and co-
workers. It reaffirms a faith in the inherent
power of resistance, which can constitute one
of the most significant drivers in the struggle
against violence and harassment. Though the
analysis presented in this study is exploratory
in nature and by no means exhaustive, it
highlights “the importance of hearing the
‘voices’ of those who are often mute within
academic research and policy debates”
(Kabeer, 2000, p. 410).
What emerges then is that any effort at
combating sexual harassment needs
concerted efforts both at the level of the
workplace and the community. At the
outset, it is imperative to advocate and
ensure that as per the Sexual
Harassment Act, the internal
complaints committees are established
and i) compulsorily have an external
NGO member on it, and ii) are also
widely publicised on the shop floor
of the factory, and all workers are
made aware of its existence.
This is however, by no means an easy
task. As Medina, Short, and Winkler’s
(2014) fieldwork findings suggest,
paperwork and documentation on the
existence of these committees is most
likely to be in place, workers are
unaware of the legal provisions, and
incidents of sexual harassment and
abuse go unreported. Not only is the
scenario grim at the local/ national
level, as Pearson & Seyfang (2002)
contend, sexual harassment continues
to be a sidelined issue in most codes
of conduct, “Whilst women all over
the world report dissatisfaction at the
patterns of coercion, abuse and
exploitation they face on the factory
floors, it is not clear that the
management and investors for whom
they work have an equal stake in
extending universal patterns of
workers rights or of recognizing
women’s particular priorities and
issues. Whilst trade union
organizations would support women’s
demands for protection from physical
and sexual harassment, it remains the
case that these are not the issues which
are prioritized in most negotiations
over the content of codes of
conduct” ( p. 56).
27. 20
How then does one ensure
compliance on part of factory owners
and managers? On this, while there
can be no definitive answer, we
suggest that given the garment
industry’s incorporation into global
value chains/ production networks,
the question of harassment can be
addressed more strongly and
effectively with active brand
participation and a conscious
approach towards gender-
responsive codes of conduct.
As the pilot experience of establishing
anti-harassment committees by Fair
Wear Foundation (FWF) (2013)9
in
garment factories in India and
Bangladesh reveals, “No clothing
brand wants sexual harassment or
abuse against workers in their supply
chains. No factory owner wants to be
known as allowing abuse to take place
in his or her factory” (p. 14).
McGregor Fashion Group, Dutch
FWF member since 2007, notes that,
“Due to the fact that most workers in
garment factories are women, and that
the harassment rates against women
in the garment industry must be taken
seriously, we truly believe that our
participation in this project is part of
our corporate social responsibility
(CSR)” (p. 15).
While criticisms may further be
leveled once these committees are in
place, and inconsistencies might arise,
what the FWF experience reveals is
in part, that some degree of political
commitment on part of factory
owners and global brands to ensure
compliance can be instrumental in
changing situations on the ground. It is crucial
therefore that pressure for compliance with
local laws be built via global brands, which
themselves need to reorient their codes of
conduct to the particular causes of women
workers. Strong social auditing is required to
ensure compliance on ground.
Trade unions, labour organisations and
NGOs have a vital role to play in this regard,
and in streamlining gender issues at the
negotiating table. Ensuring this compliance,
in principle and in practice, would require
inclusion of sustained efforts like gender-
sensitive trainings for the various actors and
stakeholders involved in the process of
implementing the law and relevant codes of
conduct.
It is of paramount importance that women
need to be able to distinguish between
acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and
report it without any fear. As the narratives
in our study reveal, workers are not passive
victims of harassment, and in fact have
spoken out strongly against incidents of
harassment and abuse, at times even risking
their job security. However, as Siddiqi (2003)
observes, “psychological scars do not
necessarily disappear once the offender has
been brought to book. Counseling services
for those who have been subjected to
harassment should also be made available”
9
Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), Amsterdam is an
independent, multi stakeholder NGO that works with
European clothing brands and the factories which supply
them, to improve labour conditions for garment work-ers.
FWF has strong relationships with trade unions. FWF is
active in 15 production countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
FWF’s 85 member companies represent over 120 brands,
and are based in eight Euro-pean countries. Members
commit to implementing the FWF Code of Labour
Practices, which is based on ILO and UN principles. FWF
publishes annual reports on the progress of members
towards implemen-tation of the Code. www.fairwear.org
28. 21
(p. 57.) Anju’s testimony in our study serves
as a case in point.
The fundamental push for change, however,
both within and outside the workplaces needs
to come from the women workers themselves.
As we have noted earlier, the narratives of
resistance offer a beacon of hope in this
regard. Trade unions, labour organizations
and NGO activists need to explicitly bring
zero sexual harassment on the forefront
as a part of good practices of any
workplace and integrate these as an
overall organizational strategy, especially
in those workplaces where women
employees are in large numbers.
Given that sexual harassment of workers is
not merely a workplace issue, such strategies
need to engage at the level of the community.
The efficacy of ‘place-based’ organizing
strategies has been noted by Meenu Tewari
(2010) in a critical appraisal of efforts to
organise women workers in Bengaluru by the
New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) and
Garment and Textile Workers Union
(GATWU). Building ‘institutional capacity’
and the ‘leadership’ of women workers within
the community first, enables “the already
organized cadre of women who had emerged
as leaders to spearhead the organizing drive
within the factories” (p. 159). In the context
of the sensitivity of the issue of sexual
harassment, we posit that a community-based
approach to organizing, is likely to yield far more
receptivity and acceptance among women.
However, the challenges of silence will
continue to prevail and the difficulty of
locating and speaking with women garment
workers will therefore require more vigour
in approach. Further, it is only through such
an approach that the retaliation and threat
faced by women workers speaking up
against harassment can be addressed.
Last but not the least, as the findings
of this study suggest, the sexual
harassment of female garment
workers is embedded in social
attitudes and notions that stigmatize
garment work, and construct images
of morally wrong women. Gender-
sensitive training, thus, needs to
engage with breaking down these
stereotypes both at the level of the
workplace and the community. In this
regard, we argue that building and
creating viable leadership of women
in the communities, through a process
that involves struggle and
contestation, challenges gendered
structures and norms, which has the
potential to alter the balance of power
at the level of the household, the
workplace and the community
Traditional forms of community-
level organization need to go hand-
in-hand with non-traditional
means such as use of creative media
(photography, puppetry and radio
shows), participatory action research,
and cultural modes of expression such
as music and dance for women
workers to articulate their identities,
and reclaim workplaces and
community spaces with respect and
dignity.
A holistic community-level
organizing combining traditional and
non-traditional forms of organization
can help raise awareness and build
solidarity in novel ways.
29. 22
Annexure One
Table A.1.1 Status of Internal Complaints Committees: Data from select
factories in Gurgaon
Factory
Factory
A
Factory
B
Factory
C
Factory
D
Factory
E
Internal Complaints
Committee
Exists. The Committee is headed by
a woman manager, and the rest of
the members are elected from
amongst the female workers in the
factory (who constitute only about
five percent of the factory’s
workforce).
Exists since 2008. The committee
consists of eight women workers and
one member of management, who
meet once a month, and are elected.
Does not exist. The researchers note
how the factory management
assumed that they had a committee
in line with the Act, only to later
admit that they did not.
Exists since the past eight years. The
committee is efficient and active and
has regular meetings.
Formed in 2004. The committee
consists of five female members, four
workers and one management
representative. The committee, at
present, meets every four months.
Meetings are held on Saturdays
during business hours.
Other details
The company provides
suggestion boxes for women to
register their complaint. The
committee, so far, has never
received any complaint.
The committee has only received
‘minor’ complaints so far. Till
date, no serious complaint has
been received.
The management stressed that
they have never had received a
sexual harassment complaint
because of the company’s zero
tolerance policy, about which the
workers are informed at the time
of hiring.
The factory provides suggestion
boxes for employees to register
their complaints. The committee
has never received a serious
complaint, and only ‘minor’
complaints of women reporting
verbal abuse and vulgar language
in the washrooms have been
reported.
The factory keeps a well-
documented ledger, including
pictures and names of all
attendees, and minutes of the
meeting.
Source: Medina, Short, & Winkler (2014)
30. 23
Annexure Two
Table A.3.1. Estimated workers employed in working factories in textile and
garment industry of Gurgaon (district) (as on 31st December, 2011)
Table A.3.2. Industrial Production in select industries in Gurgaon (district) for
the year 2011-12 (provisional figures)
Industry code1
Industry Employment estimate
Under section 2m
(i)2
13 Mfg. of Textiles 17,340
14 Wearing apparel, Dressing and Dyeing
of fur
76,772
Under Section 85
13 Mfg. of Textiles 46
Total employment 94158
Source: Adapted from Statistical Abstract, Haryana, 2011-12 (published 2013)
10
As per the National Industrial Classification 2008
11
Under section 2 m (i), 2 m (ii) and 85 of the Factories Act, 1948,
Under Section 2 m, factories means any premises including the precincts thereof; 2 m (i) Wherein ten or more
workers are working or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months and in any part of which a
manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on; 2 m (ii) Wherein
twenty or more workers are working or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months and in any
part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on without the aid of power or is ordinarily so carried
on and does not include a mine subject to the operations of the Indian Mines Act, 1923, or a railway running
school; Under Section 85 of the factories act, 1948, the State Government is empowered to notify any
factory not covered under the above two sections.
Industry Production (Lakh Rs.)
Textiles (Cotton) 60
Hosiery 80,800
Woolen Textiles 1,250
Power loom Weaving 1,500
Total Production 83,610
Source: Adapted from Statistical Abstract, Haryana, 2011-12 (published 2013)
31. 24
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