Cividep India’s research report, ‘Stitching our Shoes‘, on the conditions faced by homeworkers in Tamil Nadu’s leather industry, found mention in this feature by Reuters.
Ambur, a town in Tamil Nadu, is home to a sizable leather industry that produces leather and leather goods for export to various international brands. While shoe-assembling is carried out in factories, the labour-intensive process of stitching the shoe uppers are given to women who do the work from home, at rates below the minimum wage. According to our research, though the women form an integral part of the global supply chain behind high-end shoes selling at $60 to $140 per pair, they get paid less than $0.14 per pair they make.
Gopinath Parakuni of Cividep India also gave his inputs for the story: “These women from poor and marginalized communities … are part of a clandestine production that exploits their vulnerability,”
Read the entire piece here.