Wave of garment-worker suicides in Indian “boom” town (1000 in two years)

[Hannah Bell]

In the environs of Tirupur, a reputed boom town in the southeast Indian state of Tamil Nadu, close to a thousand garment workers or their family members have committed suicide during the past two years. The suicides were driven to take their lives by a combination of grinding poverty, overwork, precarious employment or layoff, crushing debts, and harassment from private money-lenders and their goons.

Located some 500 kilometers north-west of Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital, Tirupur has evolved into a major center of India’s textile industry over the past two decades. It now produces about 90 percent of all India’s cotton knitwear exports. Since 1998 the city’s population is said to have grown at an annual rate of 30 percent...driving the population of the city and surrounding urban area over a million...Tirupur now accounts for about a quarter of all the export earnings of India’s garment industry.

But those whose toil is fueling this spectacular growth—the hundreds of thousands of textile workers and their families—are living in desperate conditions. So desperate, they are now committing suicide at the rate of 40 to 50 per month.

It was recently revealed that in the two years ending in September 2010, 910 Tirupur garment workers, their spouses or children had killed themselves. The majority of the suicide victims were adults of 20 to 40, that is people in the prime of their lives.

And just in the three months of June through August 2010, some 250 workers took their own lives.

This increase is undoubtedly connected to a growing crisis in the garment industry that has caused Tirupur’s employers to cut 25,000 jobs and slash knitwear production by 20 percent during the past half year and to press for speed-up and wage cuts.

The export-oriented garment industry in Tirupur produces all types of knit fabrics...It consists of more than 8,000 units, of which some three thousand are micro-units that employ only a handful of workers.

The garments manufactured in these units are mainly exported to North America and Europe where they are sold by some of the world's largest retailers including Walmart, Primark, Diesel, ARMY, and Tommy Hilfiger.



For a 12-hour shift for operations such as cutting, stitching, tailoring and ironing the wage is normally around Rupees 190 ($4.22). For labeling it is Rs. 132 ($2.93); for folding of the ready-made apparels it is Rs. 131($2.93); for checking of finished garments it is Rs. 119 ($2.64) and for packing finished apparels it is a mere Rs. 106 ($2.35).

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/indi-d31.shtml

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Free trade! Woo hoo! eom

[KillCapitalism]

2. K&R

Gotta love capitalism :sarcasm:

[midnight]

3. Our world is in shambles.. People treated like objects.. Corporations like people..

[earth mom]

35. Exactly. And according to the powers that be in Washington DC corporations ARE people.

:puke:

[eleny]

4. Compared to my dad in the shop in Brooklyn, NY perhaps 70 years ago

My dad is the smiling young man in the foreground on the left. Working in tailor shops, sewing pockets and belonging to the union, he put his two kids though college. By the time I got to college, mom joined him as his partner to help with the cost. They put us both through private university educations.

My heart goes out to the people around the world who can't have the quality of life I had growing up in my working class union family.

[DesertFlower]

6. what an amazing picture.

thank you for posting it.

:hi:

[eleny]

15. You're welcome, DesertFlower!

I never saw this photo until both my folks passed away. And they lived with me and hubby in their last years! We always looked at the old albums but for whatever reason this pic didn't surface until I went through mom's things. It was still a joy to find it. A document of how some things were in America in the early 20th century.

Happy New year, DF! :hi:

[DesertFlower]

30. happy new year to you and yours.

[Raksha]

20. Thank you for posting this incredible picture, Eleny.

And for the story that goes with it. My aunt also worked in the garment industry in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, and was a member of the ILGWU. I remember those union tags in just about all my clothes when I was growing up. The people who sew our clothes absolutely deserve this quality of life, whether in Brooklyn or India. Your picture shows that it was possible in the past, and could happen again. I refuse to resign myself to the status quo.

[eleny]

29. You're welcome Raksha

Now, the place to find the union tag in clothing is at the thrift shops.

I believe it will happen again but I don't think I'll see it my lifetime. There will probably have to be a worldwide union movement with battles as America experienced - bloodshed and all.

[DesertFlower]

33. my first job was with a garment company.

the building had 3 floors. in the basement they did the cutting. the ground floor was where the clothes were sewn and the top floor was a small office and the shipping department. i worked in the office.

after that i had 2 other jobs that were in the garment center in new york city. it was an amazing place. very busy with trucks delivering clothes -- racks being wheeled through the streets. i wonder what it's like now.

[malaise]

34. Thanks for that great pic

Happy New Year Eleny :toast:

[earth mom]

36. Wow, that is an AWESOME photo! I love seeing the men sewing! That's the America I love & miss!

:cry:

Your photo makes me think of this video: Faces of America by Dan Fogelberg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH2NPh-lLaY

Faces Of America

There was a time, a simpler time
When a man could be sure of where he stood
I used to work at the yard, working honest and hard
The hours were long but the pay was good
I had a family and friends, oh so many friends
We'd drive to the lake on holidays
Back then it wasn't so dear for a sandwich or beer
At night I still dream I can see their faces
Certain things that you depend upon
There are places that you know
And the faces of America
Oh, where do they go, where did they go
I was born on a farm, a midwestern farm
I rode on the tractor with my dad
And though we never had much it was always enough
And we made the best with what we had
But then came four years of drought and the bottom dropped out
My father was broken like the rest
And I can still see his hands signing over his lands
And the bankers grow fat on the flesh of the dispossessed
Certain things that you depend upon
There are places I can go I sift the ashes of America
For someplace I used to know (someplace I used to know)
Someplace I used to know (someplace I used to know)
Someplace I used to know
There was a time, a simpler time
When a man could be sure of where he stood
I used to work at the yard, working honest and hard
The hours were long but the pay was oh so good
Certain things that you depend upon I used to think were guaranteed
Like the right of every man to work
And feed his family, and feed his family
And the faces of America seem so distant and estranged
Have their eyes become too blind to see
How much their hearts have changed (how much their hearts have changed)
How much their hearts have changed (how much their hearts have changed)
How much their hearts have changed

[Hannah Bell]

5. Interviews with workers: looks like DEBT is a big factor.

We first spoke with the relatives of a 25-year old machine operator named Gautham. They explained to us the tragic circumstances under which both he and his wife, Priya, recently committed suicide.

When Gautham returned home last September 14, he saw his wife Priya hanging from a rope from the ceiling. Devastated by the suicide of his wife, with whom he had fallen in love with two-and-a-half years before, Gautham went to his parents’ home and there consumed poison.

The couple was being hounded by local moneylenders from whom they had been forced to borrow. Goons hired by these moneylenders would frequently harass Priya when Gautham was absent from home. Unable to bear the pressure any longer Priya committed suicide. Now, the parents of Priya and Gautham are left to fend for a one-and-a-half year old grandchild without any support.

Another worker, Saminathan, wrote the following note before taking his life:

It has been 32 years since I moved to Tirupur. The principal amount of the debt I owe is Rs. 21.000 ($467). For the past four months I have been unable to pay towards the loan. I feel both ashamed and hurt because of this. I no longer have a desire to live. I do not know how to get out of this misery. I am beginning the journey towards the unknown. I have no problems from my children. My only wish is to see that my youngest daughter gets married.”

Harassment from moneylenders also led Amir, a 26 year-old cutter in a garment unit in Tirupur, to swallow poison. He had been forced to take out a loan to pay for his sister’s marriage, then, when he was unable to make payments, found the debt rapidly escalating.

We also learned about the circumstances that led another 27 year-old garment worker, Selvam, to take his life. Selvam fractured his hand in an accident. When he was healed, his employer refused to take him back and he was unable to find another job. Without income, his marriage disintegrated and he became separated from his wife, six year-old daughter and infant son. Soon after Selvam took his life.

With the meager wages we get,” said Ibrahim, “we do not have enough funds for the most basic requirements for our families. We work long hours, usually 12, 16 and sometimes 24 hours a day in order to earn more. Because of this we do not have any time to spend with our families or to play with our children.

There are no government hospitals or ESI (Employees State Insurance) hospitals for us here. Even if it is a life threatening physical ailment, we do not have access to medical facilities that we can afford. Many people here have lost their lives because they could not afford to go to a private clinic or to a private hospital.

We are nothing but slaves. Whichever political party comes to power in the state or at the center they will provide no solution to our misery. There will be no change to our plight. No particular caste or religion will give us food. We must unite as workers overriding our divisions by caste, religion, and language.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/intv-d31.shtml

sounds familiar.

[DesertFlower]

7. and the greedy corporations make more money.

[snagglepuss]

8. I think Tamils in the diaspora should direct their attention here as opposed to

independant Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

[Shallah Kali]

9. I HAVE shut my little sister in from life and light ~ Margaret Widdemer, 1919

Factories

I HAVE shut my little sister in from life and light
(For a rose, for a ribbon, for a wreath across my hair),
I have made her restless feet still until the night,
Locked from sweets of summer and from wild spring air;
I who ranged the meadowlands, free from sun to sun,
Free to sing and pull the buds and watch the far wings fly,
I have bound my sister till her playing time was done—
Oh, my little sister, was it I? Was it I?

I have robbed my sister of her day of maidenhood
(For a robe, for a feather, for a trinket's restless spark),
Shut from love till dusk shall fall, how shall she know good,
How shall she go scatheless through the sin-lit dark?
I who could be innocent, I who could be gay,
I who could have love and mirth before the light went by,
I have put my sister in her mating-time away—
Sister, my young sister, was it I? Was it I?

I have robbed my sister of the lips against her breast,
(For a coin, for the weaving of my children's lace and lawn),
Feet that pace beside the loom, hands that cannot rest—
How can she know motherhood, whose strength is gone?
I who took no heed of her, starved and labor-worn,
I, against whose placid heart my sleepy gold-heads lie,
Round my path they cry to me, little souls unborn—
God of Life! Creator! It was I! It was I!

[Hannah Bell]

11. thank you, i'd not heard of this poet or poem before.

[eleny]

16. I never read that poem before - Thanks so much

[musette_sf]

25. thank you for posting - I remember this poem

I read this in social studies class when we learned about the Triangle Fire.

http://newdeal.feri.org/library/d_4m.htm

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/

[leftstreet]

32. Thanks for posting that

[tomm2thumbs]

10. no safety net whatsoever - basically organized slavery - horrible

more profits for executives, board of directors and investors, who don't find it hard to sleep at night

[johnroshan]

12. The only way out is this - customers should demand that the clothing stores

to buy only from companies that provide better facilities and wages for the workers. Government regulation will do little and will end up becoming a lobby for the millionaires who own these garment manufacturing industries. Take it from someone who lives in Tamilnadu, the government is so corrupt that any plan to give more power to them is plain suicidal. Also, any wage fixing by the government would probably force the clothing stores to just move to another place with no such restrictions, thereby removing the only source of sustenance for these people.

It always depends on the people's moral authority to stop injustices like this. When enough people stop and complain, they'll start listening. Businesses only listen to the people who have the true power, their customers. Governments are powerless, as most politicians can be easily bought. When the people care enough, change will happen.

Next time you buy clothing from a store, please insist that they buy by fair trade practices. They might lose some of those multi million dollar profits, but they will retain the loyalty of their customers forever.

John.

[Raksha]

21. +1000

[WinkyDink]

22. With our economy, such demands are simply not going to happen. I'm very sorry.

[Starry Messenger]

13. .

I'm reading "Triangle" right now. I should say it's shocking to read a story like this in the 21st century, but India sounds like some kind of neo-liberal "paradise" for big business.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. So all those neo-liberals, like Clinton, who thought that bringing these

factories to third world countries would solve the poverty issue, are now seeing that capitalism has its own agenda.

[eleny]

17. Do you really think that Clinton was that naive

Did he really believe that the trade agreements would ease the poverty? I remember that at that time I despaired and was pissed off because I thought the companies were only seeking out cheap labor like they did in the 1960s.

In the early 60s tailor shops where my dad worked were closing so they could move to the American south or to Asia seeking a cheaper source of labor. During the very early 1970s dad would get laid off periodically during the year and he would seek work in different shops where they could secure some contracts for clothing. Then he retired.

Seems like I grew up in a sliver of time in America where there was a measure of prosperity for the factory worker. Then along came Kennedy and then later Clinton and the working class future in this country was doomed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. I think that was the hope behind NAFTA. It obviously, didn't work.

It hasn't stopped anyone from crossing our borders, looking for work.

[eleny]

28. Yeah, crossing our borders for under the table, non union work with no benefits

Not much to brag about there. Get an off the books roofing job, fall off the roof and you're on your own.

[WinkyDink]

23. Bill Clinton is brilliant and charming, but he is decidedly not naive.

[duhneece]

38. I confess I bought into the notion that the developing world...

I confess I bought into the notion that the developing world could improve in incremental steps toward higher ages for child labor & better public education access, higher safety standards for their workers...I honestly thought NAFTA would mean we'd ALL be raised. I mean, every living President supported it. I fell for it, too.

[snagglepuss]

39. I thought it would be bad but never this bad. Its interesting that free trade

agreements were just prior to the internet and the deregulation of the phone companies. Its all rather convenient that these agreements preceeded such massive changes. Had the internet been in place would people have been so complacent and/or optimistic about these trade agreements?

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. Maybe the problem is that Capitalism is more manipulated that people realize.

For example, unions and regulations would be a natural outcome, cropping from abuses. But Libertarians don't recognize these measures as a natural by-product of free trade, so they step in and interfere. I believe it's this disconnect which is turning capitalism into a predictable evil.

[Brickbat]

18. Oh, that's just growing pains from their move into prosperity. It'll happen.

Anyone want to go shopping?

[bvar22]

19. While the RICH criminals have been reassured....

...that they will never know a day of discomfort,
the Working Class has been told that they can compete with the 3rd World for their jobs.

When the Working Class & The Poor realize we have more in common with each other than we have in common with our elite Political Leaders from BOTH Parties, we can force "CHANGE".
WE outnumber THEM.

As long as TPTB can frame the National Debate as a contest between "Centrist" Democrats & Republicans,
the Status Quo will be maintained.



"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[Karmadillo]

26. Imagine if the American people were exposed to the evils of global capitalism

24/7 instead of the trivia used to deflect us from the truth. Imagine if the American people were made aware this is the future their Corporate Masters have in store for them. We either dismantle the Domination System or we serve it.

[musette_sf]

27. I think we are being made to be aware of it

like the proverbial frog in the stockpot, where the heat is still relatively low, for the moment.

[treestar]

31. wonder what is in the water there,

There a many places in the world where they have it as bad or worse, so it seems like there is some local cause.

[Shallah Kali]

37. James 5:4 'The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you'

http://bible.cc/james/5-4.htm

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.


I wonder how many who run or invest in those companies call themselves good Christians...