Our work in production countries - © Sina Marx/FEMNET 27 November 2017 For better enforcement of women's, mothers' and children's rights: Project visit to India In November 2017, Sina Marx, responsible for the Solidarity Fund at FEMNET, visited the FEMNET partner organisations Cividep and Munnade in South India. Together with Cividep, she looked at childcare in clothing factories in Bangalore. As part of a joint project, FEMNET and Cividep have been committed to improving childcare in the supplier factories of large brand companies since 2015. Campaign #WhoFits? This is also strong in Germany. Together with the FEMNET-backed non-governmental organisation Munnade and the Garment Labour Union (GLU), she visited seamstresses at home. Here she talks about her experiences. childcare “We only get gloves when the buyers are visiting,” says Lakshmi. © Sina Marx/FEMNETEverything is full of buses, trucks, horns, exhaust fumes, screams. It is almost 6 pm, working time in Peenya, one of the most important districts for the clothing industry in Bangalore. Thousands of women flock from the gates of the sealed-off factory grounds. The streets here are quiet during the day, now there is chaos. At dusk, women climb overcrowded truck loading areas to drive home. Or to the union office in the neighborhood. The office of the women's union GLU is a haven for many who are dissatisfied with their work and want to change it, even if they are tired of hours of work, they are hungry and the children are waiting at home. Gradually, the women swirl in, the hair full of lint, many have colored hands from the clothes. I wonder how many of the women present have children. Every 20 raises his hand. Then I ask how many have placed their children in a factory manger. No reaction. Why not? "There is no such thing with us", says one of the women, another says: ‘Children just vegetate there. I used to have my son in the crib, but he was always so lethargic when I picked him up.’ Many women say that children are given sleep aids to keep them quiet. Childcare facilities in factories - if there are any at all - are usually inadequate in terms of quality and capacity, although they are required by law in India. This presents the working mothers with enormous difficulties and means an additional great burden. Many children are inadequately cared for and thus have no chance of early childhood education or development opportunities. Later in the evening we visit a seamstress. She says her husband left her three years ago. Since then, she alone earns a living for the family. Visiting a seamstress (middle): The family of four lives in a room. Six families share two toilets in the yard. The neighbors also work in the clothing industry. © Sina Marx/FEMNET She has to pay off a loan she took out to have her children looked after: “But now I can no longer afford to pay the interest. That's why the children are now at home, my older son is no longer going to school because the money is not enough for the school uniform. He is thirteen.’ Grandmothers jump in at childcare. © Sina Marx/FEMNETThe grandmother takes care of the children during the day and tells them that her daughter no longer eats because of all the worries. The majority of the factory workers are single parents or at least the breadwinners of the family. "The men often just ran away or drank," the trade unionists say. ‘If the man also contributes to a livelihood, it is irregular. The men, for example, drive rickshaws or are day laborers on construction. Working conditions are poor in the factories, but women have at least minimal social security and health insurance, which also applies to children. That's why working in the factory is so important to them. If they then have to stop working after birth because childcare cannot be reconciled with work, the family loses this protection.’ Kitakind with caregiver. © Sina Marx/FEMNETOn another day, together with Cividep, I visit a factory kindergarten with a crib, which was significantly improved as part of the joint pilot project on childcare in 2016: The staff received intensive pedagogical training and was supervised by experienced educators, a curriculum was developed for the larger children and the crib was also equipped for infants. Thus, the workers can bring their children even if they want or have to continue working directly after maternity leave. "I brought my daughter here, she was still very small, because we can come here every two hours to breastfeed. It is a great relief to know that my daughter is close to me and in good hands!" says a mother who visits her child during her lunch break. As part of the project, the owner of the factories had agreed to engage an external training institute for Montessori pedagogy to train the staff in the crib. Good childcare in factories is possible. However, if the management and owners of the factories are less cooperative - which is the rule - the purchasing companies are also obliged. Because childcare in the factories is required by law! FEMNET is committed to this by contacting shopping brand companies and asking them to provide quality childcare for their suppliers. nursery group. © Sina Marx/FEMNET
