• Concentrated in the most poorly paid and hazardous jobs in the garment and textile industry, with many garment factories hiring Dalits from the most historically stigmatised communities for only janitorial work like cleaning cotton waste from factory floors, cleaning toilets, etc. • Relegated to poorer working conditions than non-Dalits including lower wages, longer working hours and higher chances of sexual harassment. • Discriminated against promotion or being considered for higher positions in the industry. • Discriminated against services provided by employers including access to social security, employer provided housing and trainings.
• This systemic discrimination against Dalits was accentuated during the Covid-19 lockdown period in terms of wage theft, with Dalit workers facing the highest fall in wages when compared to every other social category. While the wages of OBC workers dipped by 55%, and General category workers by 57%, the wages of SC workers dipped by 79%.
However, while the wages of SC workers climbed to almost pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2020, the wages of General and OBC workers remained below prepandemic levels. This is because the latter are concentrated in tailoring roles where they depend significantly on overtime pay which was now reduced due to low orders from brands in 2020. Figure 6.6: Trend in wages by social category, 2020 General
OBC
SC/Dalit
ST
150
Monthyl Wages in USD
In the pre-pandemic period itself, Dalit garment workers, including those in our sample, were earning significantly lower than workers from other communities (Figure 6.6). They faced bigotry at multiple fronts as they were:
120
90
60
30
0
ary -Febru
January
-May
March
ctober
June-O
cembe
ber-De
Novem
r
Source : Primary data, n = 433
Contract And Casual Labour Worst Affected By Covid-19
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“My contractor did not even pay me for days I worked in March. He switched off his phone and disappeared. My family was left starving with no work or money for two months. We took 10,000 INR (135 USD) as debt from a money lender at 10% interest. We ate only rice porridge for two months.” - Ashok, a contract worker at a Walmart supplier factory in Tirupur
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