Labour without Liberty - Female Migrant Workers in Bangalore’s Garment Industry
This study aims to provide more insight into living conditions in Bangalore garment factory hostels and the challenges migrant workers face at the factory and at the hostel. It looks into restrictions on freedom of movement and other indicators of forced labour. Finally, it compares working conditions of local workers and migrants...
Company 1 is one of Bangalore’s largest garment manufacturing companies, with more than twenty units in the city... Export data show that Abercrombie
& Fitch, Benetton, C&A, Calvin Klein (PVH), Columbia Sportswear, Decathlon, Gap, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Tommy Hilfiger (PVH) are amongst its buyers...
Company 2 [...] appears on Levi Strauss’s supplier list...
Company 3 is a large, well-known company in Bangalore... Export data shows that the company supplies to Abercrombie & Fitch, Columbia Sportswear, Gap and H&M. The company appears on the supplier lists of Columbia Sportswear, H&M and Gap...
The ILO identifies 11 indicators of forced labour, namely abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, isolation, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions and excessive overtime. This study has found that five of these indicators exist in the Bangalore garment industry...
Overall it can be said that only few companies have done a thorough risk analysis as part of their due diligence process when it comes to interstate migrants. Most companies still rely only on audits for their due diligence, although limits of auditing are well-known... Communication with stakeholders working with migrant workers in the Bangalore garment industry and public reporting about due diligence [...] are lacking.