Contract signed for Tamil Nadu Alliance Initiative: Start of activities on site

The Alliance Initiative for the Improvement of Working Conditions in the Textile Industry in Tamil Nadu has officially started: At the beginning of July, the members of the alliance signed the treaties. This has triggered a wide range of activities aimed at improving working conditions in the local textile industry. Last year, a kick-off workshop with representatives of the textile industry in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu successfully laid the foundation for this.

The activities under the umbrella of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles focus in particular on spinning mills: About 80% of the employees here are women, including minors. exploitation via flat-rate contracts, wages below the official minimum wage, excessive overtime, suppression of trade unions,

In close cooperation with the local multi-stakeholder initiative Tamil Nadu, changes will now be initiated at three levels:

  • The dialogue between the main stakeholder groups in the local textile industry should raise awareness of the rights of workers;
  • a training programme to accompany the planned establishment of complaint offices in 300 factories and to inform workers and management about labour rights and complaint mechanisms and beyond
  • Work and accommodation inspections are to be improved by training for 40 state inspectors and adapted to international standards.

The idea of getting involved in the state of Tamil Nadu was brought into the Textile Alliance by Femnet. In addition, with Hugo Boss, KiK, the Otto Group, Tchibo and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), five other alliance members are participating in the initiative, which is initially planned until the end of February 2020. Through the public private partnership program develoPPP.de, two other members of the textile alliance, Transfair and Brands Fashion, are also closely involved in the project.

In addition to financial and/or in-kind contributions, each member organisation contributes organisation-specific expertise and networks as well as specialists to the implementation of the project. The main implementation partner on the ground is the local non-governmental organisation SAVE (Social and Voluntary Education), which coordinates the activities of the multi-stakeholder initiative Tamil Nadu.