Pressemeldungen - Unternehmensverantwortung & Lieferkettengesetz

Within 10 days, the employees of SAVE distributed food to more than 1000 families, co-financed by the FEMNET Emergency Aid Fund. Tiruppur, India.

Within 10 days, the employees of SAVE distributed food to more than 1000 families, co-financed by the FEMNET Emergency Aid Fund. Tiruppur, India. © SAVE

Corona Emergency Fund: Quick help for seamstresses in India and Bangladesh

Globally, supply chains are collapsing due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the face of factory closures, wage losses, rising food prices and strict curfews, the situation for precariously employed textile workers is becoming increasingly severe. FEMNET has set up an emergency fund to protect themselves and their families and ensure their existence. In India, FEMNET's partner organizations have started distributing food.

FEMNET calls for solidarity with the seamstresses. The virus must not hit hardest those who have the least resources to protect themselves from the effects. A donation to the Corona Emergency Fund can support the work of civil society actors in India and Bangladesh: Their work is essential to help those affected by the crisis in the best possible way. Already with 20 euros in Tamil Nadu in the south of India, a family of four can receive 14 days of flour, potatoes, cooking oil and water. Hygiene products and means of communication are also urgently needed.

Up-to-date information on the Corona Emergency Fund is available online: femnet.de/solidarisch-wirken

Serious difficulties arise, for example, for migrant workers who are employed by hundreds of thousands in the factories in Tamil Nadu. FEMNET's partner organization SAVE (Social Awareness & Voluntary Education) reports that day laborers who work like temporary workers no longer receive wages from their agents. Therefore, they lack the money to buy staple foods. Our partner Cividep in Bangalore reports about seamstresses who can no longer pay their rent, they lose their room in the slum without help. At the same time, there are no more means of transport, so that an estimated 100,000 Indian workers are stuck in the Bangalore production center alone, many without the opportunity to communicate with their families living far away. Local organizations expect another 300,000 who will try to walk the arduous route from Bangalore to the surrounding area.

In Bangladesh, more than 1,000 factories are already closed. Here, too, people live in very confined spaces, so that a virus spreads particularly quickly. Hospitals are not prepared, protective clothing, masks and tests are missing. Many women suffer from anemia and are malnourished, as the salary is not enough to live even under normal circumstances. Kalpona Akter, head of FEMNET's partner organisation BCWS (Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity), writes: ‘Companies have cancelled jobs that workers fear for their jobs and are afraid of being infected. They live from hand to mouth, many are in debt, how can they survive without wages? When workers are laid off, foreign companies should make their payments quickly so that the workers receive at least their statutory severance pay..’

Clothing manufacturers can mitigate the dramatic impact on workers in their supply chains. Initiatives such as the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, the Clean Clothes Campaign, the Fair Wear Foundation, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and the International Labor Rights Forum published recommendations for action and measures. FEMNET urgently appeals to the companies in the clothing industry to implement the necessary protective measures for the people in their supply chain in solidarity and consistently.

Further information

contact

Katharina Edinger, FEMNET e.V., Press and Public Relations

Telephone: 0175 - 58 46 55 60
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Within 10 days, the employees of SAVE distributed food to more than 1000 families, co-financed by the FEMNET Emergency Aid Fund.
Tiruppur, India. Photo: SAVE

The use of the image is free of charge in connection with reporting on the FEMNET Emergency Fund.

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About FEMNET e.V.

FEMNET is a non-profit women's rights organization based in Bonn. Founded in 2007, the association advocates for better working conditions in the clothing industry of the global South, where much of the clothing used in the West is sewn. FEMNET requires companies to comply with social standards along the entire supply chain, for which the policy should create binding rules. Women in India and Bangladesh support FEMNET through a mutual legal assistance fund. In addition, the association supports partner organizations in the work against violence against women in the workplace and for better childcare in textile factories. In Germany, FEMNET conducts educational work at universities and schools, advises cities and municipalities on the purchase of fair workwear and provides information on seals and fair-produced clothing.

For more information: https://femnet.de/solidarisch-wirken