Unsung Heroes: From factory worker to champion of workers’ rights, meet the woman who fought for menstrual leave and fair wages in Bengaluru’s ‘limelight-less’ garment sector

Despite being a sector that employs nearly five lakh people, with over 80 per cent being women, the garment industry in Bengaluru has always remained away from the spotlight on account of the IT sector, which employs over 12 lakh people directly and earns export revenues to the tune of ₹4 lakh crore, always being in the limelight.

The garment sector in Karnataka – mainly centred in Bengaluru – although valued at only around ₹75 crore, contributes to 20 per cent of the national garment production as well as exports.

Prathiba R, as a union worker

Over the last 25 years, as the garment industry has grown in Bengaluru, Prathiba R has had a first-hand view of the sector, initially as a garment industry worker herself, from 1996 to 2000, and subsequently as a union worker who fought for the rights of the garment sector workers as the head of the Garment and Textile Workers Union (Gatwu).

Over the years, she has contributed to the welfare of garment industry workers through a consistent battle for their rights, which she says is never-ending on account of the huge turnover of workers in the industry. “There is always a new set of workers arriving, and as a result, our work is never-ending to educate them about their rights,” she said.

“There have been many highs and lows. There have been times when we have felt that nothing is changing. We have not lost our motivation because we have seen both the highs and the lows of organising workers. We have seen all our efforts come to nought all of a sudden on occasions,” Prathiba said.

“There were times when we had enrolled all the workers of a factory in the union, around 1,500 of them, but suddenly the factory was shut down. Eight years of work disappeared overnight. We continue to work. The industry keeps changing, and political scenarios keep changing, the corporate policies keep changing, and we have to adapt to the changes. This itself is a form of motivation,” the Gatwu president said.

“The companies try to keep the basic wages as low as possible. We have been battling this since 2007, and we have been able to obtain some justice for our workers. From our work, there has been an increase in minimum wages, and workers know their basic rights,” she said.

“I was also a garment factory worker. I worked from 1996 to 2000. There were a lot of factories on the Lalbagh Road. It was not so widespread. The globalisation of the industry had not happened yet. The Multi Fibre Agreement (which restricted exports from developing countries to developed countries) had not been abolished as yet,” Prathiba recalled about her journey from being a garment worker to a union organiser and a doctoral thesis on women’s labour in the globalised garment industry and a double master’s degree.

“I was working for a company called Garment International Private Ltd on Lalbagh Road. We created a union, and then the management targeted us. Some of us were dismissed, and for others, a hostile environment was created to force us to quit. A group of workers came out of the factory, and we were thinking about organising ourselves,” she said.

This was a time when consumer awareness was on the rise in the Western world regarding the condition of workers in apparel sweatshops in developing countries for the top brands, and this allowed workers’ unions to exert pressure for better work conditions.

“In the Western countries where the international brands were being sold after the garments were manufactured in India, there was awareness among consumers about the conditions of workers in countries manufacturing garments, and they were monitoring the conditions,” Prathiba said.

“The labour in the garment industry is footloose, the capital is footloose, and even suppliers are footloose. Although the garment industry is working continuously, the people in the industry are constantly changing. If there is any small problem, the factories are shut, similarly the brands leave for the smallest of reasons, and the workers also see a high turnover – they do not want to work long years in a garment factory,”  Prathiba said.

‘Workers ignorant of the laws meant to protect them’

“We have to work in this situation. It has been an organised industry for many decades. The Factories Act is applicable, labour laws are applicable, and workers get PF and minimum wages. The problem is that the workers do not know that there are laws in place to protect their interests, and the government does not have the inclination to implement laws, and company owners lobby the government a lot to prevent the implementation of laws,” she said.

“Now we are seeing a new set of migrant workers who are coming from Assam, Chhattisgarh, and other places. It is a very challenging work. It is not that nothing has happened or nothing is happening. We have to continue to do our work,” Prathiba said.

New generation of workers and changing mindsets

“The new generation of workers in Bengaluru is averse to working in the garments industry because the salaries are still low. They prefer to work in a mall or petrol station where jobs for women have opened up. In the garment sector, they get only ₹12,800 per month. Even other scheduled employment workers are getting ₹18000,” she pointed out.

The garment industry has a lot of production-based work pressures with high targets set for the workers, and the work environment is not very conducive to long tenures.

Attendance bonuses, a double-edged sword

“When a mother of young children is earning only ₹12,800 per month and has to support her family, she will try to earn more by working extra hours at any cost, and this situation still prevails with companies offering attendance bonuses. We are always arguing as union leaders for higher wages instead of offering attendance bonuses,” Prathiba said.

“This is a double-edged sword for us. As a union, if we ask workers not to seek the attendance bonus, then the workers get angry with us. We have been trying to convince them that it is an attempt to make them work long hours without rest,” she added.

US tariffs and their unpredictability

One of the dangers that the organiser of garment workers perceives for the garment industry worker in the coming days is the unpredictability unleashed by the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on exports from India.

The US policies have disrupted the garment industry through tariffs, says Prathiba. “The suppliers are managing with their existing resources and orders. The old orders have not been taken back. The companies are working mostly on a no-loss-and-profit basis. As of now, the situation is stable, but we do not know what lies in the future,” she said.

The challenges within the country for organising garment workers have also changed with the emphasis of governments on policies for ease of doing business.

“Many government norms are not followed in spirit by the factories. There is a norm that there should be creches and canteens in the factories, but this is not done. For ease of doing business, a lot of the labour norms are getting diluted,” Prathiba said.

Positive signs

Among the few positive developments that are in the interest of garment workers, according to Prathiba, is the menstrual leave policy in Karnataka.

“We are glad that they have decided to introduce a law to protect menstrual leave. It is paid leave. The factories are saying the HC has stayed it and are not implementing it. We are saying the HC has ordered a status quo till a final verdict. On one side, the management will not give leave, and on the other, the workers will not ask. We have to work between them,” she said.