A Garment Worker year old Sushila has spent many years as a worker in garment export industry of Delhi. She was employed as a ‘permanent worker’ entitled to health insurance, provident fund, overtime at a double rate, when Sushila’s factory closed in the late 1990s. After searching for a job for six months, she finally got a job km. away from where she lives.
Even after working in this factory for several years, she is a temporary worker and earns less than half of what she was earning earlier. Sushila leaves her house every morning, seven days a week at a.m. and returns at p.m. A day off from work means no wage.
She has none of the benefits she used to get earlier. Factories closer to her home have widely fluctuating orders and therefore pay even less. Let us see how the workers in the garment export industry in India are having to bear this pressure of competition. Large MNCs in the garment industry in Europe and America order their products from Indian exporters.
These large MNCs with worldwide network look for the cheapest goods in order to maximise their profits. To get these large orders, Indian garment exporters try hard to cut their own costs. As cost of raw materials cannot be reduced, exporters try to cut labour costs. Where earlier a factory used to employ workers on a permanent basis, now they employ workers only on a temporary basis so that they do not have to pay workers for the whole year.
Workers also have to put in very long working hours and work night shifts on a regular basis during the peak season. Wages are low and workers are forced to work overtime to make both ends meet. While this competition among the garment exporters has allowed the MNCs to make large profits, workers are denied their fair share of benefits brought about by globalisation. Factory workers folding garments for export.
Though globalisation has created opportunities for paid work for women, the condition of employment shows that women are denied their fair share of benefits.