Femnet e.V.

Gender-based violence at the workplace

Modern slavery in Indian spinning mills

Young women aged 14-18 are kept in state-of-the-art spinning mills like slaves. Girls and young women – often from the caste of the Dalits, the ‘untouchables’ – are committed to textile factories in southern India for three years and more. They don't even get the minimum wage. At the end of working time, which is rarely regulated by contracts, there is a premium – often only a few hundred euros. Until recently, this form of slavery was called Sumangali (Happy Bride), because the premium was to serve as the bride's price. Meanwhile, the spinning mills no longer advertise the term, but the working conditions have not changed. If a young girl does not maintain the contract period with inhumane working conditions, she is not always entitled to payment of the premium.

Spinning mills run 24 hours on seven days, they are not switched off at night and on Sundays, which is why there are three working shifts of eight hours each in the spinning mills, i.e. also a post-shift. (The law prohibits night work for women between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.)

Audits in spinning mills: Only about 10% of all spinning mills are audited.

Definitions of terms

Sumangali: In Tamil, ‘Happy Bride’ means ‘Happy Bride’. Spinning mill owners have used the word abusively for their purposes. They promised the young girls after 3-4 years of work in a spinning mill to earn so much money that they can finance their dowry and be married in this way. If the girls hold out for so long, in reality the money earned is used more to pay off the debts of the parents, for medical expenses and rather rarely for the dowry. Due to the sharp criticism, the factory owners no longer use the word today.

Camp Labour system: Instead, this word is now used. The bad working conditions have not changed as a result. The word ‘camp’ makes it clear that the young girls live like slaves on the factory premises in a so-called hostel and have no freedom of movement. You cannot leave the factory without permission. They also receive small monthly payments.

Modern slavery: Camp Labour is a form of modern slavery because forced labour has to be done.

Forced labour: The ILO has a list of Criteria for Forced Labour (PDF file). Three criteria apply exactly to forced labour in spinning mills:

• Physical confinement in the work location;
• Psychological compulsion, i.e. an order to work, backed up by a serious threat for non-compliance.
• Deception or false promises about types and terms of work

On-site research by Gisela Burckhardt

FEMNET CEO Gisela Burckhardt travelled to India several times to research facts about this exploitation system.

The ‘Sumangali’ system was introduced broadly only after 2000. The spinning mills increased and the industry needed cheap labor and invented Sumangali. Young girls aged 15 and up are hired as ‘apprentices’ for 3-4 years, so they can be paid less. In fact, women do not even receive training/instruction, let alone safety training, and they work as normal workers.

The girls aged 15/16 receive a very low wage and the promise that after 3-4 years of work they will receive a fixed sum of 30-40,000 rupees (about 394,- to 533,- EUR). Allegedly, the money for the dowry is supposed to be for a marriage of the girl, but almost all young women (16 interviewees) we interviewed used the money for other needs. They usually give the money to their parents, who pay debts or medical expenses or the like.

Many girls, however, do not last 3-4 years in the spinning mill, but excrete after 1-2 years. In most cases, they are then scammed for the correct sum and often receive less or no total sum at all.

All the girls surveyed had gone to school for 8-10 years, but this often means that they can only read, not necessarily write except for their signature.

Sumangali is linked to accommodation in a ‘hostel’, where the girls sleep twelve in a small room (12 sqm). They lie on the floor, one next to the other, often crowded together, each on a slightly thicker cotton cloth, covered with a sheet. Not everyone had their own pillow. They really looked like slaves to me, but you have to consider that most Indians sleep on the floor without a mattress. I saw a couple of bedrooms where the girls slept during the day, pulling the sheet over their heads because they had night shifts. Especially the girls, who come from far away, have no relatives nearby and work under the Sumangali system, are used for night shifts.

The cost of accommodation and three – bad meals (approximately 800 rupees/month) will be deducted from the girls’ wages!

In many hostels there is no fan on the ceiling, it is hot to twelfth in a room. For 24 girls there is often only one washroom, during the shift changes there are crowds.

The girls are imprisoned like slaves and are not allowed out of the factory. Only twice a year they can go home for 1-2 days to visit their parents, but have to rework the days. Parents are allowed to visit their children in the factory every 1-2 months for about an hour.

After 3-4 years under Sumangali in a spinning mill, many women have miscarriages or do not get pregnant. Men often do not want to marry women who have worked in spinning mills because it is known that they have problems having children.

The girls start at 15 years of age (up to 14 years of age employment is prohibited, since child labour), but there are even occasional under 14-year-old employees. The employment of young people between the ages of 15-18 (Abolition of Child Labour Act) is allowed under certain conditions, this is exploited by the industry to exploit the girls.

Young girls don't fight back and do what the supervisors tell them. Trade unions do not exist in the factories, as they are not responsible for apprentices!

Working conditions/infringement of labour rights

• Night work
• Girls often don't have a day off, work 7 days a week
• No payment of overtime, the girls are simply used as needed, non-transparent payment, unclear which deductions are made for what.
• No holiday (only 2 times a year women are allowed to go home for 1-2 days)
• Overtirement due to overtime and night shifts. One woman said ‘you give us an injection when we are tired and not working well’.
• Poor food. Many girls are malnourished, suffer from anemia
• Work under permanent pressure, girls hardly have time to go to the toilet, every gait is recorded, none may stay away for too long. When she goes to the toilet, her colleague has to take over her work, which puts even greater pressure on her.
• For many girls, the period is absent (a woman reported that she worked in a spinning mill from 16-19 years and only then begins the period with her) or is very irregular. Everyone complained of abdominal pain, not just during the period. In order to buy tablets, they are not allowed to leave the factory, the supervisors give them something.
• One woman reported: Only if she shows her bandage with blood, so proves that she has her period, she is allowed to take a slightly longer break
• If you are late, you will be deducted a full day's wage.
• There is no doctor in the spinning mills, not even a nurse
• Many women develop allergies on their hands
• Insults are common, sexual harassment also occurs, supervisors are all men
• Women are subject to the arbitrariness of the overseers, he can assign them heavy work, if she does not behave well with him.
• There are suicide cases. The girls can no longer bear the working conditions and the slave existence, without freedom of movement
• There are some rapes, but very few. In one case, a girl did not come back to the bedroom after the night shift, others were looking for her. It was said that she had a minor injury and was in the hospital, the next day she was dead without an official examination.

Payment (as of 2013):

The girls receive less than the minimum wage. If a minimum wage was paid, the girls would receive 2446 euros after three years: 196,- Rs/day x 26 days = 5096,- Rs/month x12 = 61,152 x 3 years = 183,456 Rs (= 2446,- EUR) 1200,- Rs/month net (46,- Rs./day) after deduction of hostal costs and food x 12 months = 14,400,- x 3 years = 43,200,- Rs (= 576,- EUR) plus 30,000,- Rs Lumpsum (394,- EUR) = 970,- EUR.

So: Instead of 2446,- EUR they get 970,- EUR after 3 years of toil.

Demands of NGOs in Tamil Nadu

1. Abolition of the Sumangali System
2. No employment of young people under the age of 18 under the pretext of an apprenticeship
3. No night work for young women
4. Introducing a Committee Against Sexual Harassment in Every Factory According to Recent (2013) Law
5. Increase of the minimum wage for apprentices from 196,- Rs/day (2,61 EUR) to 300,- Rs/day (4,- EUR)
6. Punishment of dealers who make false promises to the girls or their parents about the work in the spinning mills and receive one commission per girl from the factory (2,000,- Rs.)