Women Camp Labour: A Case Study on Tirupur Textile Industries, India

Abstract:     
It’s a known fact that unless and until women are given their rightful place, no society or country can progress. The Tirupur People Forum (TPF), a Non-Government Organisation in Tamil Nadu studied the state of affairs of the women workers in textile industries during 2001 to 2008. Young unmarried women below the poverty line had under gone worst form of exploitation in their working environment and the social activists accuse that this continues unabated. The provisions of Indian Factories Act, The Industrial Disputes Act, Minimum Wages Act and other acts empowering women and children were flouted by various textile industrial owners under the scheme launched by them called “Sumangali Scheme” (Marriage scheme for unmarried girls). This exploitation barring rights and privileges to women employees in textile industry amounts to unfair trade practice and a punishable offence. This is also against the norms of corporate social responsibility. This article/presentation describes the repression of women employee through Sumangali scheme in Tamil Nadu and the mismanagement of human relations legally and morally by the employers.

Keywords: Sumangali, Corporate Responsibility, Exploitation of Labour, Welfare acts in India

working papers series