Candle Light Vigil

Has your manager ever threatened to kill you if you didn’t do the photocopying?


Or have you ever been so frustrated at work that you felt like killing yourself?

A few weeks ago AFP received an email from one of their partner organisations, Cividep, who are based in Bangalore. A 17 year old girl, Roopa, had been killed. We have now been informed that she had been burnt alive. Local authorities have registered the case as murder under Indian law.

This case is not the first of its kind. Last year a girl named Ammu was found dead in the lavatory of a well-known factory. And in another case a woman named Renuka committed suicide at home, allegedly due to harassment at work.

Nearly 80 per cent of the 500,000 garment workers in Bangalore are women, and although child labour is against the law, you still see children in factories sewing, knitting and carrying supplies from on place to another.

Every day, in every factory, female workers are under the threat of violence and harassment at the hands of male supervisors and managers. They have been known to throw garments at workers faces, physically pushing them sometimes by their neck and are made subject to verbal abuse.

Cividep, who works closely with the workers, believe these deaths are related to the bad treatment suffered by the young women.

The candle light vigil of today is in condolence to Roopa and all the other women who have suffered in these factories. Something needs to be done but for today please have Roopa in your thoughts.

Image Credit- kkalyan on Flickr at Creative Commons