One Dies in Group Suicide Attempt by Garment Workers

If you were unfairly dismissed you would go to see a lawyer, take your case to an employment tribunal or even take your story to the media.

But what do you do when you are a 20 year old Dalit girl from a small village in India? You lay yourself down on the train tracks and pray it won’t hurt.

This is exactly what four female garment workers working for Choice Apparels/ Novacraft a garment manufacturing company factory did.

Aarti had worked for Choice Apparels for three years. She lived in a hostel provided by the company she worked for. She went home for two weeks and on her return to work, she found that there was no longer a job waiting for her. The Production Manager shouted at her and told her to get lost in the most abusive manner. When Aarti tried to return to work the next day she was refused. Jobless, homeless and unable to return to her village Aarti and three other workers made a suicide pact. The four women lay down on a train track but were spotted by Railway employees, who managed to drag three of the workers off the track however they could not save Aarti.

80% of garment workers are women - women without voices who need the support of us, the consumers. Activists have demanded hard action against the management of the factory and condemned the apathy of the Labour Department in enforcing labour laws. We as consumers can pressure companies to enforce a code of conduct that protects labour rights. Aarti’s is just one of many tragic stories of garment workers who have chosen death over the oppressive working conditions. Let’s try and make her story the last.

If you want more information on this case or how you can make a difference
visit the Cividep website.

Is the value of an item of clothing equal to the value of a life?

Two weeks ago we held a candle light vigil in memory of Roopa, a garment worker in Bangalore who was burnt alive.

We want to thank everyone for the warm response that we received. A lot of people were asking us if there was anything they could do.

To help prevent cases like that of Roopa, it is important to realise that we are the ones who can change things and stop undue pressure being put on garment workers. We should take the time to understand where our clothes are coming from. We as consumers have more power than we think. The clothing industry has only gotten as big as it has because we have let it. We should make more informed choices about our clothes and try to look for ethical alternatives and buying less.

We have come to live in a world where everybody wants everything now. We don’t stop to look beyond our own needs and see that our actions are having an impact on other people’s lives.

The garment worker trade is a serious problem and it is important that we create as much awareness about the issue to prevent more cases like that of Roopa.

The number written on a price tag is not an indication to the price on human life.

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