Gender-based violence at the workplace

Campaign #Against violence against textile workers

We will clarify the background, consequences and extent of violence against women in the textile sector in India and Bangladesh. With our awareness-raising and campaign work, we put pressure on politicians and companies, raise awareness among consumers, show solidarity with local women and send a signal against violence and exploitation.

From October 2018 to March 2021, FEMNET carried out the #Counterviolence against textile workers campaign, whose goal was to make gender-based violence (GBV) in the workplace accessible to a wider public in Germany and on the ground in India and Bangladesh.

A study by our partner organisation BCWS and the report ‘Breaking the Silence’ based on it shed light on the oppressive situation of women, also on the basis of real fates. We confront the public, politics and business with these facts. In Germany, we organize lecture tours and information events in which women from the producing countries report on their personal struggle against violence. We are reinforcing these activities through wide-ranging media work to effectively bring the issue to the public.

Through advocacy, press and campaign work, we want to exert targeted pressure on business and politics and call on textile companies to eliminate the grievances in the factories of their suppliers and integrate them into the on-site projects of our partners.