Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: An Archive on Garment Workers
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: An Archive on Garment Workers
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: An Archive on Garment Workers
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: An Archive on Garment Workers
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: An Archive on Garment Workers
What is the Garment Workers Archive Project?
The Garment Workers Archive Project is dedicated to preserving the history of garment organising in the first two decades of the 21st century in the city of Bengaluru. This exercise of archiving of a labour movement is necessary in contemporary India where informalization of work reigns supreme and history could offer some resources for imagining a collective and collaborative future.
Why an archive of organizing garment workers is necessary?
The city of Bengaluru and the garment industry: A Question of Representation
In the period of the ‘IT boom’ in the 2000s, as it is popularly known, another employment-intensive industry was also growing rapidly in the city. This was the export-oriented garment industry where factories manufactured high-end, fast fashion fulfilling orders received from transnational apparel corporations in the global north. The industry drew in a vast army of poorly-educated women from areas surrounding Bengaluru, offering them low-paid, moderately stable employment. Yet, neither the industry nor its workers have found any representational space in dominant imaginations of what Bengaluru is.
Labour organising in post-liberalisation phase
GATWU’s work represents one of the more successful efforts at organising labour in new industries such as garment factories where the nature of capital is footloose, i.e. transnational and local garment capital is notorious for shifting to cheaper regions without any form of notice.
About the contributors
Munnade
The Garment Mahila Karmikara Munnade, the first-ever social organization in Karnataka that focused solely on garment workers began in 2004. This was a membership-based organization and undertook its mobilizing efforts in residential areas where garment women workers resided. Munnade addressed issues of domestic violence, educational needs of the children of garment women workers and offered assistance in matters of health and law. Through the creation of self-help groups, it enabled women to access credit during times of need. It also started cultural teams among workers to help them express their creativity.
GATWU
- Organising garment workers at the ground level
- Ensuring that legally-mandated minimum wages are paid to workers and that workers are able to work in torture-free environments
- Representing workers in various forums, including with governments, factory owners and transnational apparel corporations
The Garment Workers Archive Project is a foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under the Project 560 programme, made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.
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