By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter
A new report published by the India Committee of Netherlands (ICN) shows that various forms of modern slavery, including child slavery, are found in more than 90% of the spinning mills in South India. These spinning mills produce yarn for India, Bangladeshi and Chinese garment factories that produce for the Western market.
The report, Fabric of Slavery, exposes the scale on which young girls and women – the majority of which are Dalits- are enslaved by employers who withhold their wages or lock them up in company-controlled hostels. They work long hours, face sexual harassment and do not even earn the minimum wage.
Gerard Oonk, director of ICN, said, “We have raised the issue for five years now, but even to us the scale of this problem came as a shock.”
During the course of the report, researchers in South India spoke to workers of 743 spinning mills in Tamil Nadu, almost half of all the mills in the region. The majority of the women working in those mills were between 14 and 18 years old; 10 to 20% are younger than 14. Almost half of the researched mills have a so-called ‘Sumangali Scheme’ where a significant part of worker’s wages is withheld until they have completed their contract.
Sixty hours a week
According to the report, more than half of the researched mills do not allow workers to leave the hostel after working hours. In all those mills, young women workers face intimidation, sexually coloured remarks and harassment, which they can hardly escape. “Only 39 mills pay the legal minimum wage. In half of the spinning mills a standard working week means working 60 hours or more. Only 10 mills have trade union presence and no more than 33 mils have a workers committee where workers may be able to express grievances,” said the report.
The researchers also interviewed a number of workers, including an 18-year-old former worker, who injured herself while escaping from a mill by climbing a 3.5-metre high wall. “I was promised that I could continue my studies, but instead was forced to work for 12 hours in a shift. Supervisors torture girls to extract work beyond their capacity,” she told ICN.
ICN, which works on forming social and political opinion and influencing, research, education, publicity, campaigning and public awareness (raising), has previously also looked into spinning mills that supply Western brands such as C&A, Gap, Marks and Spencer, Primark and Walmart.
“In Fabric of Slavery ICN did not look at specific supply chains, but it is safe to say that yarn from the mills covered in this research is used in supply chains of international garment brands. 30% of the yarn is directly used in south Indian factories producing for export, and at least 20% of the yarn is exported to garment factories in China and Bangladesh. So, while the label in a T-Shirt does not say ‘Made in India’, the yarn might be,” the report added.
Only 39 of the 743 mills pay the minimum wage, the report added, and only 37 out of 743 researched mills have a standard working timeframe of 48 hours a week, the report pointed out.
Upscale successful initiatives
The report added that while advocacy and action on ‘Sumangali schemes’ by NGOs, unions and brands has contributed to reducing the incidence of such schemes, it has not tackled the issue of modern slavery in all its dimensions.
“Multiple factors contribute to this failing including poor enforcement of labour laws, the power of the industry, superficial audits by buying brands and lack of initiatives that increase a joint leverage of brands. A few mills, often under pressure from their Western buyers, have addressed labour concerns in cooperation with local organisations. To sustain and upscale those successful initiatives, brands and governments from importing countries should use their collective leverage to tackle this structural form of slavery in co-operation with the central and state governments, the industry ánd local trade unions and NGOs,” the report added.