The Garment Sector Workforce

The Indian garment industry employs nearly 4 million workers, which is the second largest in the world after China, which employs 15 million workers. The majority of garment workers are women.

Cividep-India focuses on the garment sector in Bangalore, where an estimated number of 500,000 workers are employed in around 1200 factories. More than 85 per cent of the workforce in this city are women.

Working Conditions Concerns

The garment sector has come under severe criticism for the appalling working conditions prevailing in a large number of production areas. The most apparent violations of labour and human rights in this sector include:

• Denial of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining - managements put down attempts of unionisation and the terms of employment are unilaterally determined by the management without reference to workers
• Inhumane treatment and verbal abuse to extract higher productivity
• Sexual harassment of women workers
• Forced and unpaid overtime.