The sumangali scheme relates closely to the dowri system in India - which by definition is a payment of cash or gifts from the bride's family to the bridegroom's family upon marriage. The dowry understandably puts great financial pressure on a family and is cited to be one of the biggest reasons for feticide/sex selection resulting in a phenomenally distorted ration of women to men in India...and the degradation and dishonourable attitude to women...and so forth. As a result, the payment of dowry became prohibited with the introduction of The Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, yet thousands (more than 8000 deaths in 2010) of dowry related deaths are reported each year. Dowry deaths are the deaths of young woman who are murdered of driven to suicide due to continuous harassment and torture by in-laws and husbands in an effort to extort an increased dowry. Its ironic that so many dowry related deaths are officially reported yet, kidnapping, selling of humans, and domestic violence are seldom.
Getting back on track...with the dowry system still very much a part of indian culture, the sumangali scheme was designed to work, in theory and started as a good initiative to encourage women to build skills, and make a good living until they get married. In a nutshell, the scheme was introduced as a way of promising young women a small pay each month with a large lump sump payment at the end of three years. During the three years, the women are promised training and development in skills and education. The idea is, with this lump sum at the end of your employment you will have a sufficient dowry in preparation for marriage. As I mentioned, this works...in theory. Over time, corruption, cohesion, deception and desperation makes for an incredibly unjust situation.
Today, Alex takes us to Tiripur to meet Henry and the team at SAVE. Save is an organisation dedicated to child rights, women's developments, labour resourcing and migration. But their rescue and prevention work for women associated with the sumangali scheme is instrumental given Tiripur is the capital of India's garment industry. To give you an idea, 11% of the world's apparel is made in India, and of that 70% of the trade exports from Tiripur. There are 6,500 garment related facilities here and over 700,000 workers, 450,000 migrants that travel from mainly 7 different states in india. When I say travel, I mean voluntarily looking for work or trafficked. In fact, we're told that most are adolescent runaway children come looking for jobs, and up to 15 children per bus into Tiripur (and when you're in Tiripur you'll notice the abundance of buses) are trafficked. There are two kinds of working systems in Tiripur, one is the hostel based system which workers live within the factory compounds and the other you opt for your own accommodation should you be able to afford it. The latter is not an option for most. The 90% of workers aged between 15-19 years end up in the hostel based system (10% are aged 25+) in which living standards are below substandard. In fact, most supply little and unhygienic food, poor accommodation (up to 30 women sleep in a small room, with no mattresses, windows, air or light), no access to toilets, no holiday (some cases report for every day you take leave be it for being sick or attending a family members funeral you accrue an extra month work with no pay), and most shocking of all, women are allegedly fed hormones to prevent their menstrual cycles so to minimise disruption to their working day. These aren't facts I read about but first hand accounts of 12 women who so passionately shared their stories with us today. They waited for 3 hours for our arrival at a small office run by a local gentleman who has dedicated his life to saving and campaigning for the rights of these women. 12 women, 1 hour, too many shocking stories which left us completely speechless. We were so welcomed but perhaps it was our foreign demeanour, it was hard to get anyone to talk. However, as Carolyn and I started making conversation with 12 women who were strangers themselves to us, we quickly felt familiar and comfortable for them to expose their experiences - and candid they were. One by one, their voices got louder, they got angrier, they got more passionate - they wanted to be heard. One woman told us she had to work an extra year with no pay because she fell ill, one woman told us she witnessed the death of her friend who had fallen and got her hair caught in a mill, one woman told us of the hormones fed to them but they didn't think much of it until they fell ill...and then made to work extra days and months in lieu without pay...and so the cycle goes on. Deaths are a common occurrence in these factories, but covered up and identities of the deceased tossed away as if they never existed, literally, or so their families are told.
The toughest part for these women are not that they are so mistreated but that at the end of their working term, they get fired prematurely for unknown reasons and don't get a payment at all. If they do, it's minimal, the factory owners citing that they needed to cut their pay for accommodation, food, leave...even more devastating is that the lack of education leads to women continuously being exploited to this scheme even sisters of these very women we had met.
The most touching moment of today was when one of the women held my hand as we were leaving and made me promise we would return to tell their story, and we embraced and held each other for awhile and all I could do was nod.
We can't just tell their story, we need to change their story.
The next time you pick up a piece of clothing, spare a thought for these women and children, not just in India but all around the world because they too have paid a price.
For your reference...
http://www.fairlabor.org/report/understanding-sumangali-scheme-tamil-nadus-textile-garment-industry
http://www.ethicaltrade.org/in-action/programmes/garments-and-textiles-india
SAVE school for rescued children
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