Fight Against Gender-Based Violence Takes Major Step in Tamil Nadu

Mayu Saini
·7 min read

The Dindigul Agreement to eliminate gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) came into place in June 2022 following the tragic death of a garment worker in the small Indian town of Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Signed by the employer, Eastman Exports Global Clothing Private Limited, along with worker rights groups and H&M, Eastman’s biggest customer, the binding agreement aimed to outlaw discrimination based on gender or caste while promoting more transparency and equitable treatment in the factory setting.

Now, that agreement is emerging as a possible model for growing similar commitments across the sourcing landscape. A German delegation who visited in December studied it carefully, along with brands like C&A and Primark, and discussions were had about whether it can be replicated by other suppliers in Tamil Nadu and India at large.

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“The aspect of the Dindigul Agreement which has been very important is that it addresses the important issues of caste, gender and migration and put dialogue at the heart of it along with the shop floor monitor system,” Anannya Bhattacharjee, International Coordinator for Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) told Sourcing Journal. “What that allows us to do is to see the maturing of the social dialogue between the union and the management in an industry where dialogue is really rare.”

Describing it as a “unique and precedent-setting multi-party collaboration across the garment supply chain,” Bhattacharjee said labor unions are looking to the Dindigul Agreement as a template and finding ways to expand it to involve more brands and manufacturers.

The treaty emerged in the aftermath of the murder of Jeyasre Kathiravel, a 21-year-old worker who died at the hands of her supervisor at Natchi Apparel, a subsidiary of Eastman Exports. Natchi Apparel is India’s fourth biggest apparel exporter.

Public outcry about the tragedy spurred global apparel firms like H&M Group, PVH Corp. and Gap Inc. to sign onto the agreement, along with the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), an independent, women-led trade union of textile workers, the Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF), a non-governmental organization that works transnationally to advance policies and laws that protect decent work, and Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), an Asian labor-led global alliance of labor and social movement organizations.

“In the last 40 years there hasn’t been a serious trade union victory in this region—and that being led by women is not something that has been heard of. So having Dalit women…in rural Tamil Nadu is something so huge, and holding three of the biggest fashion brands accountable for what’s happening in their supply chain has been a tremendous victory,” another AFWA spokesperson observed.

In the traditional caste system, Dalit is considered the lowest caste.

Thivya Rakini, president, TTCU, who described it as a “milestone for the Asian garment labor movement,” observed that “Transparent conversations are happening between management and workers, leading to fewer conflicts, mature industrial relations and improved trust and confidence in management among workers.”

“The agreement has created a space of social dialogue between the union and the management of Eastman Exports,” Rakini added. “This has enabled us to help both workers and management improve working conditions as well as the efficiency of production.”

Typically, manufacturers have been more resistant to such agreements in India.

“Eastman was more pro-union than all the other suppliers out there and this is where we have arrived,” Bhattacharjee said. “So we have this bottom up multi-entry grievance mechanism which includes shop floor monitors, Dalit leaders, migrant workers and women workers to actually take part in grievance solving along with the management dialogue.”

“The agreement has helped us build our transparency and equity at the workplace, which in turn has earned us a lot of positive feedback from the labor organizations as well as customers. This agreement has also renewed our focus on employee-first culture and imbibing best practices at work,” Cibi Karthic, managing director at Eastman Exports, told Sourcing Journal.

After one year under the agreement, the company has “witnessed several positive developments, including improvements in our workers’ awareness on grievance reporting mechanisms they have, such as [Prevention of Sexual Harassment], besides gender equality. This has resulted in increased employee engagement and enhanced ties with labor rights groups,” he said.

Addressing gender-based violence and harassment is essential to creating a more healthy labor environment, and Karthic said the issue extends well beyond Tamil Nadu. “Tamil Nadu, in fact, is one of the states with lowest crime rate against women. Also, almost half of the country’s female workforce is based in Tamil Nadu, according to the latest Annual Survey of Industries,” he added. “The government’s proactive women-centric, welfare policies over the years have helped greatly in facilitating this growth. Having said this, I feel it is important to note that there is always room for improvement and that should begin at an individual level.”

Almost 70 percent of the workforce at Eastman is made up of women. Kartic added that more than 100 female employees have been promoted from workers or junior staff to supervisory roles, and the implementation of a buddy system has helped ensure support for new recruits.

The Dindigul Agreement has helped the company in a global context as well. U.S. Customs and Border Protection modified the Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Natchi Apparel garment imports, which for a time prevented shipments from entering the U.S. market. “This collaboration played a critical role in ensuring that imports entering the United States were free of forced labor and meet the humane and ethical standards required by U.S. customs and trade laws,” an AFWA official said.

Noor Naqschbandi, head of program at German international development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH described his visit to the area in December as inspiring.

“The program that I lead at GIZ hosts the most important multi-stakeholder initiative in the German textile industry, the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. Members consist of fashion brands, civil society, standard organizations, unions and the German government,” he said.

Naqschbandi said the group implements joint projects called partnership initiatives. One initiative, called “Advancing Worker-Led Agreements on Gender Justice,” was inspired by the approach of the Dindigul Agreement. Its objective is to scale up the Agreement to end gender-based violence and harassment in the factories that are part of the initiative.

“We work together with member brands that source from Tamil Nadu and their suppliers to agree to further enforceable brand agreements modeled after the Dindigul Agreement,” he said. “I think this shows that we are expectant that the success and approach of the Dindigul Agreement can be replicable and is an effective approach to contribute to significantly reduce gender based violence in the textile sector.”

Naqschbandi described attending a community event in Dindigul. “It left me and my colleagues extremely impressed and emotionally touched—all those women, who were so brave and open to tell us as strangers their very personal stories, are incredibly powerful,” he said. “And what makes them so powerful is that they have joined the union and enjoy the community of support within it.”

Ashley Saxby, gender justice coordinator at AFWA who worked closely with the visiting German delegations, said the delegates were able to meet with 30 people from the village who shared stories about how the agreement has changed their lives. “They were very inspired by the people they spoke to, and they said they saw the Dindigul agreement was their North Star,” she added.

“At this critical time when we are celebrating the fifth year anniversary of ILO Convention C190, the first year report shows that the Dindigul Agreement is a model for implementing international labor standards for eliminating gender-based violence. The Dindigul agreement works and defines key roles for brands, suppliers, and labor partners. We call on more brands to sign this agreement and others like it” said Jennifer Rosenbaum, executive director of Global Labor Justice -International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF).

Bhattacharjee noted that women workers have been emboldened. “If you see the results, we’ve seen a huge reporting of grievances which is a very good trend because it shows that workers are no longer scared to report,” she said. “Fear itself is one of the biggest things in garment factories, and we’ve been able to address that. Out of the grievances, 98 percent were remediated within the first year of the Dindigul agreement, which is a huge number. When we compare it to all the money spent on CSR and the social audits on which brands and companies spend billions of dollars, this is such a huge victory.”

“The fact that it was done, and it is getting implemented by Dalit women, makes the victory even sweeter.”