Unbearable harassment
April 2022 13
2 Intensification of GBVH during COVID-19 “
So many of us lost family members and neighbours during the second wave. We are constantly worried and stressed about the situation at home. Yet, when we report to work, all managers do is yell at us, humiliate us and harass us to make sure we meet production targets.” Arti, employed at a garment factory in Karnataka
The economic crisis created by the pandemic has disproportionately affected women garment workers, given they are often both the primary caregivers and breadwinners in their households. Exacerbating this burden further, women workers revealed unprecedented levels – and new forms – of GBVH during the pandemic. This was driven largely by fashion brands’ actions in response to COVID-19, including order cancellations, delayed payments and squeezing suppliers even further on price. The economic distress which this caused occurred within a broader context of widespread job losses in India, which has left garment workers willing to take any factory work available, including with reduced terms on their already short-term contracts. This has facilitated workforce expansion, contraction and reorganisation by supplier factories to meet the shifting needs of fashion brands. As factories navigated brand disengagement and lockdowns, workers described being laid off and then hired for stints of employment with reduced workforces and even higher production targets – leading to relentless pressure to produce, an escalation of workplace discipline practices and heightened restrictions, including fewer breaks and extended unpaid overtime. As a result, the research revealed workers experiencing alternating periods of being locked out of and locked into supply chain employment; encountering the physical and mental toll of falling below the poverty line; and then returning to production lines with even more unreasonable production demands, while facing heightened risks of GBVH.
