Femnet e.V.

Interview with Parvathi Madappa and Lea Kress

How is the situation of Indian textile workers one year after the start of the pandemic and the 

lockdown in India? How are they affected by the Indian Labour Law Reforms which provoked a massive wave of protests? Parvathi Madappa works for the Indian labour rights organization CIVIDEP and Lea Kress for the German NGO FEMNET. In collaboration with partners in the Global North, CIVIDEP seeks to hold brands accountable for rights violations in their supply chains. For example, CIVIDEP cooperates with the civil society members of the “Textilbündnis” to improve the situation of textile workers. Due to the Corona crisis millions of workers lost their livelihood, that is why CIVIDEP started distributing relief aid and German partners have set up emergency funds.

The podcast is available on different podcast platforms and on the website of mela wear.

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In this article, data are presented on key labour issues in two garment factories, Leader One and Dong Yi. From intensive interviews with 39 workers, a grim picture of the pre-Corona crisis situation arises. Things cannot go back to the way they were. Let the Corona crisis be a turning point to finally improve the lives of workers in the garment supply chain, starting with these two factories in Myanmar.

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Like other sectors, the coronavirus pandemic has also upset the leather production, production process, productivity and its supply chains in all respect. The country's leather exporters are going to be hit hard for the coronavirus outbreak in China, which is their largest export destination (about 60%) of leather from Bangladesh. According to the stakeholders, Bangladesh tanneries and leather sector as a whole facing a huge financial loss amounting over USD300 million and the figure is increasing daily basis. There are around 300 containers of leather and leather goods that are packed up on the factory premises for shipment. Most of the previous export orders are being cancelled by the foreign buyers as the countries from where the order came has also been hit hard.

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This video shows the labour conditions in the leather industry in Pakistan.

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Supply chains are more like webs than linear chains, with layers of agents, contractors and subcontractors. This is a problem because fragmented and opaque supply chains can allow exploitative and unsafe working conditions to thrive while obscuring who has the responsibility and power to redress them.

This is why Fashion Revolution, among many other organisations, has been calling for greater transparency and accountability across the global fashion industry since the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Bangladesh in 2013 killing more than a thousand garment workers. In support of the Tamil Nadu Alliance, Fashion Revolution has reviewed the supply chain transparency efforts of 62 major brands and retailers with reported links to textile suppliers in Tamil Nadu.

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