No dignity in labour

Chennai: Seventeen-year-old Sathyapriya was dragged into textile business when she was merely 15. “I was promised the opportunity to study while working but how can someone study if they are made to work 13 hours a day.”

What caused more pain for Sathyapriya was not the fact that she could not study but even after a month of being a tuberculosis patient, she was not allowed to go home.

“I borrowed a phone from a colleague and called up my mother begging her to take me home but when she arrived, my employers refused to let me go. After three days, my mother finally approached the police who were able to get me out of that hell,” she recalled.

Sathyapriya is one among thousands of women who get drawn into occupations that provide them with humiliating wages, never ending work hours, no sick leave and if anyone raises their voices against this atrocity, they are promptly told to “work or find another job”.

Another victim is Rakkamma, 59, from Tiruchy. She has worked for 22 years in a rice mill but despite two grievous injuries she has to carry heavy sacks of rice without a day’s rest.

While fighting tears, a choking Rakkamma said “Once I cut my stomach while working, another time I fell down while carrying a sack of rice. Both those times I had to pay the bills with my own money plus forced to return to work before I even recovered fully. The employers have no concern for our health or our lives, we work like dogs all our lives and no one cares.”

These workers are predominantly from industries such as shoe making, textile, silver anklet making, cotton and garments factories.

Earning daily wages in the range of '100-150, these women work continuously without even being allowed a break to use toilet. “Even pregnant women are not allowed breaks, if we sit down for two minutes we are bound to get harassed. Denying bathroom breaks gives women all kinds of problems that permanently damage our health,” said Alamelu, silver anklet maker from Salem.

While their salaries are cut even if they come a few minutes late to work, no additional wages are given if the women are made to work for extra hours.

The women are also given unrealistic targets for example, making forty pairs of shoes in an hour and if they fail to achieve the target the women complained that they are denied a lunch break or are not allowed to go back home for the day.

The supervisors who deny them these basic necessities also recounted how they are forced to punish the workers, “If we try and tell our boss that a particular worker is sick, we are threatened with pay cuts or asked to leave the jobs if we are not able to reach targets. We are constantly under pressure and have no other choice other than to succumb,” said Seema from Erode.

According to a supervisor, when a government official is due for a visit, the whole factory gets a makeover.

“Workers are given unfiltered drinking water and it is taken from a different sources everyday but on the day of the official visit we are miraculously provided with a water filter.”

The women pray for betterment in their working conditions, seeking help
from the government to intervene and provide them with at least some, “dignity
in labour”.