A WORKFORCE TO RECKON WITH

Tamil Nadu accounts for 43 per cent of women factory workers in India. The state's socio-economic status and high education levels have contributed to this, but much remains to be done

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

Uma Ganesan, 36, has been working in a garment factory in Tiruppur as an overlock tailor for the last 20 years. Her day begins at 4am. After completing her household chores, she goes to the knitwear factory where she works from 8am to 4pm— with only a 15-minute tea break in the morning and evening, and a 40-minute lunch break. Sitting at the sewing machine for hours is tiring, and sometimes she works overtime to help a colleague. “I used to get ₹45 per shift when I joined 20 years ago,” Ganesan tells THE WEEK. “Now, I get ₹350.” That day, she had stitched overlocks for 350 garments. “Even if I work very fast I can stitch for only 350 pieces a day,” she says.

A few hundred kilometres away, Kalaiselvi Sundaram, 26, works at a spinning mill in Dindigul. Her routine is similar to that of Ganesan, but unlike her she earns only ₹4,000 per month. “There are more than 300 women who work with me. Only the supervisors here are men,” says Sundaram.

Farther away, Valliamma, 56, is one of the 15,000 women employed in the salt pans of Thoothukudi. She earns ₹330 daily. Armed with her yellow pair of thick socks, Valliamma braves the elements every day to dry and pile the salt crystals, and then load them into a vehicle, along with her male co-workers.