Thousands of young women work in garment factories and textile mills in Southern India, producing cotton jersey garments such as t-shirts, leggings and pyjamas for the British high street.Many suffer labour rights abuses that amount to forced labour.
We need UK retailers to take responsibility and to take action to urgently improve conditions, and end the abuse.
Read our new briefing on forced labour based on research interviews with these young women workers.
Women and girls in South India are continuing to work in conditions of forced and bonded labour in a textile industry supplying many UK highstreet brands.
The latest report from research organisation SOMO highlights serious labour rights and human rights violations faced by girls and young women employed in the Tamil Nadu spinning industry in South India, which is a major hub in the global cotton jersey (T-shirt fabric) sector.
The women and girls, some as young as 15, work long hours for low pay. They live in very basic company hostels and are not allowed to leave the premises for months at a time.
Some of the workers feel imprisoned: “I do not like the hostel; there is no entertainment and no outside contact and is very far from the town. It is like a semi-prison”.
The SOMO report investigates five spinning mills, which are supplying products for big name clothing brands – including C&A, Mothercare
and Primark.