DECCAN INQUIRER
Bi-Weekly e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.... Vol.04.....Issue.38.................13 / 05 / 2023
Apple iphone production triples in India
US technology giant Apple has significantly increased its iPhone production in India, with output tripling to $7 billion in FY23.
Almost 7 per cent of Apple's iPhones were manufactured in India in the previous financial year, assembled by its partners such as Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron Corp, reported Bloomberg news quoting people familiar with the matter.
In contrast, the country only accounted for an estimated 1 per cent of the world’s iPhones in 2021.
Moving away from China
The sharp jump in iPhone manufacturing in India suggests that Cupertino, California-based Apple is exploring ways to reduce its reliance on China. This is in view of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Apple’s manufacturing partners have also started expanding beyond China, particularly in India, after last year’s chaos at Foxconn’s main ‘iPhone City’ complex in Zhengzhou. This led to huge issues in Apple’s supply chain and forced it to cut output estimates.
At the same time, India has rolled out a spate of incentives to boost local manufacturing, which has caught the eye of both Apple and its contract manufacturers.
Apple exported iPhones worth $1 billion in the year ended March 2023 out of the total production – this is nearly four times as much as the previous period, said the Bloomberg report quoting sources.
The sources added that Apple will likely attempt to manufacture the next iPhones in India at the same time as China, starting September 2023. If this happens, it will be the first time iPhone assembly will begin concurrently in the two countries. This will help the company reduce supply chain issues and disruptions that it faced last year.
And if its suppliers such as Foxconn continue to expand aggressively in India, Apple could assemble a quarter of all its iPhones in India by 2025.
Even before the hiccup it faced last year due to China’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions, Apple had identified the need to diversify its supply chain. It had successfully lobbied for incentives in India and reportedly pushed its suppliers Foxconn, Wistron Group and Pegatron to ramp up local production in the country.
What does it mean for India?
Apple’s manufacturing push will play a significant role in India’s mission to become a major manufacturing hub of electronics goods for the world, and an efficient alternative to China.
The increasing share of India’s iPhone manufacturing output will also boost the country’s economic growth as it will attract other major brands to manufacture in the country. India has already established itself as a leading marketplace for electronic goods and all things online.
RTI request to HONOURABLE Assistant Labour Commissioner and Deputy Director of Factories Mysuru District
Ref : RTI Application no. LAMYS/R/2021/60004
1. List of industrial accidents involving workman in industries located in mysuru district from 2001 – 2021 year wise with name of industry where it occurred.
2. List of industrial accidents not reported by industries in the above geographic area in the above mentioned time period with name of industry where it occurred.
3. List of Industrial accidents which happened at M/s RPG Telecom, RPG Cables, Karnataka
Telecables Ltd, Concepta Cables Ltd , KEC International Ltd , Sudarshan Telecom , Finecore Cables, Varsha Cables , Deepanjan Cables , KTMS , Automotive Axles Ltd and at construction site of Infosys campus Mysore from 2001 – 2021.
4. List of action taken by government against above erring companies. If not reasons for it.
Editorial : Labour Exploitation
- An Appeal to Honourable Prime Minister of India
The new labour codes to be introduced are not impartial and justified. It is biased and gives ease of labour firing to investors. There are no provisions to strengthen accountability of factory management with regards to health safety of workers and their constitutional rights.
Factory managements stress on duties, discipline of workers , it is fine for a healthy organisation. But what about the duties of Management towards workers and society. Managements thrive on public money ( bank loans , shares, debentures) , get tax exemptions from government, get subsidized land , power from government. Are not Managements accountable to the public ?
Honourable Prime Minister inspite of your rhetoric you have failed to give justice to working class. Introspect and correct your policies.
Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
With regards
Nagaraja M R
Karnataka Labour Dept finds Wistron did not record deduction in pay for workers
TNM accessed the Labour Department’s inspection report of Wistron’s manufactory in Kolar and found several violations of labour laws.
Contract employees at Wistron’s iPhone manufacturing unit in Karnataka’s Kolar were not given offer letters, employment contracts and were denied salary slips on request, the Karnataka Labour Department has found. “When asked to produce, the (company) did not,” the report says. The inspectors also found that contract employees were not given offer letters, employment contracts and were denied salary slips on request. The report indicates that contracting companies including Quess Corp, Adecco India Ltd and Creative Engineers violated norms related to hiring personnel. However, it does not specify whether the other violations it noted were incurred by Wistron or the contracting companies.
The Karnataka Labour Department visited the plant on December 12, the day thousands of disgruntled workers vandalised the factory, alleging that their repeated requests to pay deducted wages and overtime amounts were stonewalled. The Labour Department found several violations of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 and the state government’s rules pertaining to this legislation. The inspection was conducted by Kolar district’s inspectors working in the Labour Department -- Lokesh Kumar and Renuka Prasad.
Sources with the Labour Department told TNM that a report including the inspection’s findings were sent to the Union Labour Ministry. “We don’t know what action the Union government will want us to take. In such a situation, the contracting companies could be blacklisted,” a senior official with the Labour Department said.
The Labour Department official also said that its “findings” based on multiple inspections and interactions with company representatives indicate violations by the contracting companies.
What the report states
The report, signed by Rajeshwari, the Labour Officer in Kolar district Labour Office, noted that contractors including Quess Corp Ltd, Adecco India Ltd and Creative Engineers had hired more people without prior approval of the labour department. “Contracting companies Creative Engineers and Quess Corp Ltd, had obtained permission to hire 2,350 and 1,350 employees for Wistron. They hired 2,410 and 1,511 personnel in total and had not obtained permission to hire the additional employees. Adecco India Ltd had obtained permission to hire 3,000 employees but they hired 111 additional personnel without prior approvals,” the report added.
However, the most important finding was that the workers salaries were deducted, which was in violation of the Contract Employees (Regulation and Abolition) Rules. According to the rules, salaries can be deducted if there is a record of employees taking unpaid leave, or if it is proved that any damages were caused to the company’s infrastructure due to the said employees’ action. “No explanation was given regarding the deduction in pay,” the report noted.
TNM spoke to several employees who stated that every month three or four days’ pay was deducted despite them having worked those days and that this had gone on for over six months. Employees said that despite multiple requests submitted to Wistron’s to the HR Department, no action was taken to rectify the deduction in pay.
An earlier report submitted by the Department of Factories, Boilers and Industrial Safety, had stated that overtime wages for the housekeeping staff were not paid. The report also stated that the company violated section 8 of the Minimum Wages Act where complaints of employees were not officially recorded.
The report also found that the company had violated norms under the Industrial Employees (Standing Order) Act 1976, where the management’s decisions were not effectively communicated with the employees. However, this report does not specifically state whether these violations were incurred by Wistron specifically or the contracting companies.
What the human resource contracting companies claimed
A source at Quess Corp told TNM on condition of anonymity that Wistron hasn’t been able to meet with the increased workload coming its way, especially after the lockdown ensuing the pandemic. “They went up from 2,000 employees to nearly 10,000. The unprecedented increase in workforce in a rather abnormal pandemic situation impeded their ability to put systems that would have enabled them to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities,” the source said.
He also said that Wistron had failed to maintain a good relationship with its workers. “If there is an issue at the plant, they should have been able to call somebody, there should have been community connect that they generated like someone to mediate between bureaucracy and legal resources. Hence there was a rampage. And that’s where I think the focus should be as you analyse this issue,” the source added.
Industry sources also say that service providers such as Quess Corp, which is a listed company, are expected to follow the same level of governance as a Wistron or Apple is, and as service providers, they will also begin looking at clients keenly and whether or not they want to work with them and under what circumstances.
Responding to TNM, another contracting company, Randstad India said that it strictly abides by the law of the land and that it has a zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance.
“We are working with Wistron Corp to identify the root cause of the problem. As a responsible organization committed to the welfare of our staff, we believe in upholding our values of fair employment practices and pay structure. At this juncture, we are committed to do everything that is necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees deputed to Wistron and will continue to work with the authorities,” Paul Dupuis, MD and CEO, Randstad India said.
Is Wistron accountable?
Employees that TNM spoke to said that when they approached Wistron’s HR Department, they were informed that the company had handed over wages to the contracting companies. When employees approached the contracting companies, they were informed that payments disbursed by Wistron were made and that the contracting companies only disbursed the money received from Wistron, the principal company.
Speaking to TNM, Professor Matthew Babu, adjunct professor at National Law School India University in Bengaluru and Director of Centre for Labour Studies, said that both the contracting companies and the principal company, in this case Wistron, are accountable to ensure that labour laws are not violated.
“The principal employer should ensure that the wages are paid properly and it should appoint personnel to monitor whether contracting companies are also following these norms. They can’t escape so easily. First of all they get labour at cheapest price and don’t pay minimum wage and overtime, which is a violation of the Minimum Wages Act,” he said.
He said that such lack of monitoring would be counterproductive to increasing investment in Karnataka as employers would prefer to work in states where such systems are in place and function properly. “It is the job of the principal company to ensure that all contract employees are registered and should ensure that management’s decisions are communicated properly. This seems like a blame game,” he added.
After Meals With Worms, Women At iPhone's India Plant Fought Back
For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.
But when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers their anger boiled over, culminating in a rare protest that shut down a plant where 17,000 had been working.
A close look by Reuters at the events before and after the Dec. 17 protest casts a stark light on living and working conditions at Foxconn, a firm central to Apple's supply chain.
The tumult comes at a time when Apple is ramping up production of its iPhone 13 and shareholders are pushing the company to provide greater transparency about labour conditions at suppliers.
Reuters spoke to six women who worked at the Foxconn plant near Chennai. All of them requested they not to be named because of fear of retaliation on the job or from police.
Workers slept on the floor in rooms, which housed between six to 30 women, five of these workers said. Two workers said the hostel they lived in had toilets without running water.
"People living in the hostels always had some illness or the other -- skin allergies, chest pain, food poisoning," another worker, a 21-year-old woman who quit the plant after the protest, told Reuters. Earlier food poisoning cases had involved one or two workers, she said.
"We didn't make a big deal out of it because we thought it will be fixed. But now, it affected a lot of people," she said.
Foxconn Plant On Probation
Apple and Foxconn said on Wednesday they found that some dormitories and dining rooms used for employees at the factory did not meet required standards.
The facility has been placed "on probation" and Apple will ensure its strict standards are met before the plant reopens, Apple said in a statement.
"We found that some of the remote dormitory accommodations and dining rooms being used for employees do not meet our requirements and we are working with the supplier to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions are rapidly implemented."
Apple did not elaborate on the improvements that would be made for workers at the plant or the standards that would be applied.
Laws governing housing for women workers in Tamil Nadu mandate each person be allocated at least 120 square feet of living space and require housing to adhere to hygiene and fire safety standards as laid out by local authorities.
Foxconn said it was restructuring its local management team and taking immediate steps to improve facilities. All employees would continue to be paid while it makes necessary improvements to restart operations, the company said.
Venpa Staffing Services, a Foxconn contractor that runs the dorm where workers were sickened by food poisoning, declined to comment.
The food poisoning and subsequent protests have also led to investigations, some of which are ongoing, by at least four Tamil Nadu state agencies. Officials have also privately told Foxconn to ensure better conditions, senior state government officials said.
"It is Foxconn's responsibility," Thangam Thennarasu, the industries minister of Tamil Nadu state told Reuters.
The Tamil Nadu state government said in a statement last week that the state had asked Foxconn to ensure that working and living conditions were improved, including the quality of housing and drinking water.
Foxconn has agreed to ensure that worker living conditions follow government recommendations and meet legal requirements, the statement said.
Apple and Foxconn did not indicate in their statements when the plant would reopen.
Foxconn had told officials that it had "ramped up production too quickly," though production was curtailed during April and May when the Delta variant of COVID-19 was raging in India, a senior government official from the state's industries department told Reuters.
Taiwan-based Foxconn opened the plant in 2019 with the promise of creating up to 25,000 jobs, a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign to create manufacturing jobs.
Sriperumbudur, a town outside Chennai where the factory is situated, is a busy industrial area with factories that make Samsung and Daimler products nearby.
The factory is central to Apple's efforts to shift production away from China due to tensions between Beijing and Washington. Reuters reported last year that Foxconn planned to invest up to $1 billion in the plant over three years.
Foxconn contracts out the staffing of the factory to labour brokers, who are also responsible for housing the workers mostly women employed there.
Rats And Poor Drainage
Following the protests, food safety inspectors visited the hostel where the bout of food poisoning occurred and closed the dorm's kitchen after finding rats and poor drainage, Jegadish Chandra Bose, a senior food safety officer in the Thiruvallur district where the hostel is located, told Reuters.
"The samples analysed did not meet the required safety standards," he said.
The women who work at the Foxconn plant make the equivalent of about Rs 10,500 in a month and pay Foxconn's contractor for housing and food while they work at the plant.
Most workers are between 18 and 22 and come from rural areas of Tamil Nadu, the head of a women workers' union said. The monthly pay at the plant is more than a third higher than the minimum wage for such jobs, according to state government guidelines.
The 21-year-old worker who quit following the protest, told Reuters that her parents are farmers growing rice and sugarcane. She said she looked for a city job like many others in her village and considered the Foxconn wages good.
Several activists and academics said women recruited from farming villages to work in Sriperumbudur's factories are seen by employers as less likely to unionise or demonstrate, a factor that made the protests at the Foxconn factory - which isn't unionised - even more notable.
V. Gajendran, assistant professor at Madras School of Social Work in Chennai, said women recruited to work in nearby factories "typically come from larger, poor, rural families, which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their ability to unionise and fight for their rights."
'We Were Alarmed'
The food poisoning incident sent 159 women from one dorm to hospital on Dec 15, workers told Reuters. Some 100 more women needed medical attention but were not hospitalised, the Thiruvallur district administration said last week.
A rumour - later proved to be false - circulated that some of the women who had fallen sick had died. When some sick workers failed to show up for work at the factory two days later, others staged a protest when shifts were changing.
"We were alarmed and we talked among each other in the hostel and decided to protest. There was no one leader," one of the workers told Reuters.
On December 17, about 2,000 women from the nearby Foxconn hostels took to the streets, blocking a key highway near the factory, the district administration said.
Male workers, including some from a nearby auto factory, joined a renewed protest the next day, the Foxconn workers Reuters spoke to said.
Police responded to the larger, second protest by striking the male workers and then chasing and striking some of the women involved, two workers and Sujata Mody, a local union leader who had interviewed workers told Reuters.
Police detained 67 women workers and a local journalist, confiscated their phones, and called their parents with a warning to get their daughters in line, three of those detained, local union leaders, and a lawyer who was trying to help those detained told Reuters.
Reuters could not independently confirm the descriptions of the police response.
M Sudhakar, the top police official in Kancheepuram district, denied that protesters were beaten, phones were confiscated, or that workers were intimidated by police.
"We strictly adhered to guidelines and respected the rights of those who were detained. All rules were followed," he told Reuters.
K. Mohan, a village-level administrator who went to the hostel where the food poisoning incident occurred to investigate living conditions on Dec 16, found no safeguards to prevent COVID-19 infections, he told police in testimony reviewed by Reuters.
"I went to that place to investigate since there is a chance that this place could become a Covid cluster," Mr Mohan told police. "The women were made to stay in the hostel where no coronavirus guidelines were being followed."
The unrest at Foxconn was the second involving an Apple supplier in India in a year. In December 2020, thousands of contract workers at a factory owned by Wistron Corp destroyed equipment and vehicles over the alleged non-payment of wages, causing estimated damage of $60 million.
Apple had then said it placed Wistron on probation and that it would not award the Taiwanese contract manufacturer new business until it addressed the way workers were treated at the plant.
At the time, Wistron said it had worked to raise standards and fix issues at the factory, including the payroll systems. Wistron restarted operations at the plant earlier this year. Apple had no immediate comment on Wistron's status when asked by Reuters.
Indian factory workers supplying major brands allege routine exploitation
Workers at the factories, who live mostly in poverty, allowed the BBC to photograph them anonymously
Indian workers in factories supplying the supermarket chains Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and the fashion brand Ralph Lauren, told the BBC they are being subjected to exploitative conditions.
Women working at a Ralph Lauren supplier said they had been forced to stay overnight to complete orders, sometimes requiring them to sleep on the factory floor.
"We're made to work continuously, often through the night, sleeping at 3am then waking up by 5am for another full day," one woman said in an interview. "Our bosses don't care. They're only bothered about production," she said.
The BBC has withheld the names of those who agreed to be interviewed, as well as the names of the factories, to protect the workers' safety.
Workers at the supermarket supplier said they had been made to endure conditions which would be unacceptable for staff employed by the same brands in the UK.
"We don't get toilet breaks, we don't get time to drink water on shift. We barely get time to eat lunch," one woman said.
She said a manager would sometimes stand behind staff in the canteen and blow a whistle to send them back to work.
Another employee said staff were forced to work overtime and prevented from going home until extra work was finished.
"They've increased our workload. We're forced to stay late to finish it - or they yell at us and threaten to fire us. We're scared as we don't want to lose our jobs."
The four brands supplied by the factories we investigated all said they were concerned about the allegations put to them by the BBC and would investigate.
This young woman feeds her family on a salary of £61 per month. She told the BBC it was a struggle.
The women working at these garment factories all live in poverty in a rural area of South India. The charity Action Aid, which supports more than 1,200 female garment workers across 45 villages in this specific region, told the BBC that forced overtime, verbal abuse and poor working conditions were routine at the factories in question.
Allegations such as these are not confined to the garment industry. Low wages and weak labour laws have long made India an attractive place for foreign brands looking to outsource work. Unions are rare and virtually absent in the private sector, making informal and contract workers especially vulnerable. While inspections are mandatory, rampant corruption and a sluggish system has meant that factories are rarely held to account for breaking the law.
The garment industry draws more attention because it's driven by exports and counts some of the world's biggest brands as among its clients. India is the world's second-largest manufacturer and exporter of garments after China. India's garment makers directly employ about 12.9 million people in factories and millions more outside, including their own homes, according to a 2019 report that investigated working conditions in the sector.
Several women who spoke to the BBC described a climate of fear at the factory supplying Ralph Lauren. They said managers did not give them notice to work additional hours, instead threatening them with the sack if they were unable to stay on.
"The supervisor always shouts at us," one woman said. "If we make any error in stitching, I'll be taken to the master who is very scary. The master will start swearing and shouting at us. It's a terrifying experience"
Another woman, a widow who supports her family financially, said: "They ask us to work so late I can't even feed my children at night. They shouldn't treat us like slaves, they should give us respect," she said.
This worker at a factory supplying the UK supermarkets told us staff do not get water or toilet breaks
The claims appear to violate India's Factories Act, which states that no worker should exceed more than 48 hours a week (or 60 hours with overtime), nor should they be made to work for more than nine hours in one day.
The law also states that women should only work night shifts if they choose to do so.
Ralph Lauren's 2020 Global Citizenship and sustainability report says the company is "committed to conducting our global operations ethically with respect for the dignity of all people who make our products". The report also includes a pledge to ensure employees "must not be made to work excessive working hours" and says there should be no "verbal harassment, coercion, punishment or abuse".
The three brands are all members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), and have signed up to its base code which includes a pledge to ensure working hours are not excessive, overtime is voluntary and that workers are not subject to verbal abuse.
In a statement, Ralph Lauren said it was deeply concerned by the allegations put to the company by the BBC and would investigate.
"We require all of our suppliers to meet strict operating standards to ensure a safe, healthy and ethical workplace, and we conduct regular third-party audits at all factories," the company said.
The factory supplying the fashion brand denied the staff members' allegations and said it was compliant with the law.
The three supermarket brands all said they were shocked to hear the reports and were working together to ensure the issues were remedied, in particular on excessive working hours.
Sainsbury's said it was "insisting on a number of actions the supplier must take in order for us to continue to work with them", including "immediate actions and ongoing commitments the supplier must make while we continue to closely monitor the site".
Tesco said: "We don't tolerate any abuse of workers' rights and fully investigated these allegations as soon as we were made aware. We were deeply troubled with what we found."
Women are underpaid throughout global supply chains, according to the charity Action Aid
Tesco said its plan included "prohibiting excessive overtime, strengthening grievance procedures" and ensuring workers were "fully compensated at the correct rates for hours they've worked".
Marks & Spencer said it "undertook an immediate unannounced audit" in the wake of the claims, the company said it "identified overtime working practices that are not acceptable", but disputed worker accounts about access to toilet breaks and water.
The company also said it had a "robust" plan in place and would be "undertaking regular unannounced audits to ensure its implementation".
'Brands are to blame'
These kinds of brands do not own or operate factories in India, which creates distance between them and working conditions there, but one owner of a clothing supplier - who did not want to be named - told the BBC that if brands push for cheaper clothes it can leave suppliers with no choice but to cut corners to meet orders.
"It's the brand who wants to maximize the profit. So, they push you to a level wherein you have to do the exploitation in order to survive," he said.
The owner, who used to supply a major UK brand not mentioned in this story, described some factory audit processes as a "sham".
"The factory is aware when the auditors are coming, so they keep everything in perfect condition before," he said. "The moment the audit is over, everything goes back to normal, which means exploitation and non compliance."
He said that poor checks and balances, combined with a lack of responsibility by the brands, makes it hard to stamp out that exploitation.
"It is the way of working in the textile industry, it's just not India, it's everywhere."
And as profits are squeezed, women often find themselves losing out. Payslips seen by the BBC show women working in garment factories can earn as little as £2.50 per day, making items which, in some cases, sell for hundreds of pounds.
The factory workers who spoke to the BBC live in poverty in rural southern India
More than 40% of workers surveyed by Action Aid India reported that their average monthly income was in the range of Rs. 2000-5000. (£20-£50).
"Women are undervalued and underpaid throughout global supply chains," said Esther Mariaselvam, the associate director at Action Aid's Chennai office.
All of the workers who spoke to the BBC described living in impoverished conditions and said they struggled to survive on their salaries.
One woman working at the Ralph Lauren supplier said she supported her entire family on a wage of around 6,000 rs (£61 per month), after deductions.
Still in her late teens, she became the breadwinner after her father died and now provides for her mother and two sisters.
Her salary is within the local legal minimum wage bracket for her job, but labour rights organisations say women like her should be earning more than three times as much.
The Asia Floor Wage Alliance organisation which advocates for higher salaries for garment workers in the region, has set a monthly living wage in India of at least 18,727 rs (£190).
Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer have previously made commitments to a living wage. Ralph Lauren has not done so explicitly.
But according to payslips seen by the BBC, neither of the factories we investigated appeared to be paying their workers anything close to the Asia Floor Wage Alliance recommended minimum amount.
We asked all four brands to comment on the living wage but none of them responded on the specific issue.
Charities have called on major brands to do more to protect those in the supply chain feeding their stores
Charities have called on major brands to do more to protect those in the supply chain feeding their stores
Anna Bryher, from the advocacy group Labour behind the Label, said it was the responsibility of brands to ensure fair and safe working conditions.
"If you're a brand and you're making clothing in different countries around the world then you need to look at whether you're paying your workers enough to live with dignity," she said.
"It's your responsibility as the company at the top of the supply chain to know what is happening in your supply chain and to make sure that it's fair."
Local labour laws were not doing enough to address exploitation, the push for change needs to come from the brands themselves," argues Vivek Soundararajan, a senior lecturer at Bath University who researches global supply chains.
"Most checks and balances do not include workers voices, they do not include what workers actually need," he said.
"I think the brand should take the full responsibility … They may not run the factory, but they get all the benefits.
How Sexual Harassment Has Scarred Women In India's Garment Industry
Women workers say sexual harassment common in garment industries
Many say sexually assaulted, raped by superiors; sacked for complained
India's garment industry employes 31 million women; 70% of workforce
Gurugram/Bengaluru: In a room in Kapashera, we meet Navita. She came from Jamshedpur to seek work in more than 190 units that form one of the emerging hubs of garment exports.
In no time she was absorbed as casual labour into the factories through the contractors who act as middlemen in the area. By earning per piece of cloth she completes, she would receive money in cash every 15 days.
Working in a company called Pearl Global, she learned the toxic rules of how the units functioned.
"The manager there was someone called Kamlesh. He used to ask every single woman to come to his cabin and whoever used to say yes, got to work there for 10-12 years at a stretch without any problem. They are earning a good amount of money also," Navita says.
Navita refused the advances and was soon shown the door.
Her next stop through the same contractor named Karan was Maharani of India operating from plot number 417 in Udyog Vihar, where she claims, two masters bet on who would 'get her'. One of whom was a migrant from Uttar Pradesh.
"He was like "I'll gift you a phone. Don't you have a number? I said that neither I keep phone nor I change numbers. He then offered me a phone and asked me to keep in touch with him and call him as he wanted to meet me. He added that he will pay me Rs. 5,000 per night," she recalls.
Navita told this to the contractor and the person in-charge of the factory, but to no use. "When I took a step and stood for myself, they fired me," she said.
Her stories are echoed by Shanti from Uttarakhand, who alleges in a company called Shivam the in-charge said, 'My wife has gone to the village. Become friends with me. I will give you your salary accordingly. Listen to me', Shanti alleges.
When NDTV approached Maharani of India, they stated that no such incident has either happened or reported in their organisation.
"These women never worked with us to know how a good organisation works. If they knew, they would know that there is a system put in place for everyone's safety and health. These people need to produce evidence that they worked for me and if they cannot, I don't want to feel that these people were harassed by me," said Nimma Kapoor, Founder and Partner, Maharani of India.
The company further explained how it has formed an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, a fact that is also reflected - at least on paper - in an RTI response from the labour department of Haryana.
As per the Act, each workplace is meant to set up an ICC, with at least 50% women members and an external member from a local NGO.
Another company Pearl Global, to which NDTV sent queries, never responded.
Data with the Haryana Labour Department says almost all of the 186 garment manufacturing companies have ICCs.
But the women claim these committees do not inspire confidence.
Shanti recalls hearing of one such committee in the factory where she worked.
"But that was only for namesake," she said. "They tortured women so much that the latter were forced to quit. One friend of mine was made the head of the committee. After a few days, she had a terrible fight with a person and he tortured her so much that she was forced to quit," she added.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles further south of the country, similar stories echoed in a room in Bangalore, another major garment hub, suggesting that the new tougher law against sexual harassment at workplaces has barely filtered into the garment factories.
Unlike in Gurgaon, most women who work in factories in Bangalore are from rural areas in Karnataka, but that has not made them less vulnerable to the daily sexual abuse on the factory floor.
Pooja is one such girl who joined the army of more than 5 lakh women who work in garment factories spread across three major industrial areas of Bangalore - Peenya, Bomannahalli and Mysore Road - when she was barely 18 years old.
Soon the floor in-charge named Shankar at a factory run by Gokaldas Exports, started approaching her every morning. "He would wish me 'good morning' with a handshake and do this gesture (scratch her hand with his finger)," she explained.
Pooja spoke about this matter to her family friend who was working in the same factory but the matter was brushed under the carpet and never officially reported.
In an extreme case, NDTV was told how a young girl, Sushmanta, who worked for Devaki Designs is suspected to be driven to suicide because of harassment by a supervisor.
"The supervisor started calling her, saying that he can drop in to her house when her parents are out on work. Scared to tell anyone about these calls, under pressure she committed suicide," said Manjula, a garment worker in Bangalore.
K P Ratna, another garment worker from Bangalore who NDTV spoke to, worked in Texport Creations where when she dared to complain against the harasser. She was told that she might be 'wrong' and it is better to 'close the chapter'.
"Someone would come from behind and touch my back because I would be wearing a blouse which was a little deep," Ratna said. She added how on a factory floor, the supervisors, floor managers, production manager all save each other's backs. "Even if one complaint goes against any one of them, all three gang up," she explained.
She added that when she took names of the people who misbehaved with her in her resignation letter, and she was told by one of the male seniors: "Don't get in this letter ever again and come to me directly and I'll solve all the issues."
Devaki Designs, we were told has shut down.
NDTV's email to Gokaldas Exports went unanswered.
Texport Industries in an email response to NDTV mentioned that they have an ICC in place and have measures to ensure prevention and control of sexual harassment in their factories.
These instances are not isolated, but are indicative of the darker side of India's garment industry, a booming sector estimated to be worth $67 billion, and a major employer of women. The government has positioned it as a major growth sector, announcing a revent package worth Rs 6,000 crore.
And yet, when NDTV spoke to dozens of women in these two major garment producing hubs - Bangalore and Gurgaon - which account for almost a third of India's total garment exports, almost all of them shared similar experiences.
Moreover, a study of Bangalore's garment industry, released last month by a UK-based NGO Sisters For Change conducted with a local partner, exposes the scale of sexual violence and abuse in the sector.
"We find that 1 in 7 women garment workers have either been forced to commit a sexual act or have been forced to have sexual intercourse, been raped in the workplace. And that 1 in 14 had suffered physical violence in the workplace, going up to 60-65% having suffered humiliation through acts or intimidation at workplace," elaborates Alison Gordon Obe, Executive Director, Sisters For Change.
NDTV contacted the brands these companies produce garments for and also a representative body of the garment industry, Apparel Exporters & Manufacturers' Association.
Gautam Nair, Vice President of Apparel Exporters & Manufacturers' Association does not deny the problem, but says it is not the norm.
"I think the industry to a great extent reflects the society we live in," said Mr Nair.
But added that the Indian companies are subject to compliance audits by the international brands, which are very sensitive to having a congenial work environment, having work ethics and norms which are in line with the existing laws and in some cases meet and exceed Indian laws.
In a statement to NDTV, Gap Inc. said, "We take these allegations seriously, particularly since our Code of Vendor Conduct prohibits discrimination and harassment of women. We will be working with (our vendors) to address the concerns raised and to help ensure that factory management is providing a safe and fair work environment for the female garment workers who make our clothing."
Taking a similar stand, H&M said, "To monitor compliance with local labour law and our sustainability commitment, H&M auditors make regular visits at our suppliers' factories, mostly unannounced. All supplier factories approved by H&M in India have Prevention of Sexual Harassment committees in the factories. During our audits we check the functionality of the committee, conduct worker interviews and share our contact numbers with the workers for them to contact us in case of any grievances."
ANN Inc. said it takes these allegations very seriously. Their statement said, "We regularly assess the contract manufacturing facilities in our supply chain, including conducting third-party and unannounced audits, in an effort to ensure that all factories comply with our Code of Conduct and applicable laws and regulations, and effective systems are in place to uphold workers' rights, including the right to work in a safe, fair and harassment-free environment. We will continue to work closely with our vendors to investigate and address these concerns and we remain absolutely committed to contracting with only those facilities which provide a safe environment for all workers."
But several women told us that when the auditors come, women are tutored.
"We are instructed to say that we are given a salary, are being paid a salary of Rs 8,700 per month. No overtime is given. We are not insulted or abused, not tortured a lot. We are paid on time. Sunday is always an off, even though we are made to work on Sundays. Overtime is also there - ladies work as much as the gents," said Navita.
"We are told to say that we do not work overtime and that we only work on the said number of pieces per day. At that time of inspections, we are told to keep our workspace clean, and when they (auditors) leave everything is back to normal," said a garment worker in Bangalore who did not wish to be named.
Mr Nair said, "The truth is somewhere in between. Firstly, there is a possibility of truth in these complaints. The Sexual Harassment Act has only come to being in 2013. It's going to take some time for it to really be accepted and become functional properly in industries. And I'm sure this is the early stages. So there's possibility of truth. It works on both sides - first, the important thing to note is that I think we've improved overall and that's the most important thing, I think we're moving in the right direction. There is still some scope to improve."
As for the government oversight of compliance, the record doesn't appear to be encouraging.
An official at the Karnataka Labour Department told NDTV that inspections of factories in the last 7 to 8 months have been virtually nil. The department is under a staff crunch and the liberal labour laws now accept self-compliance by factories.
In Gurgaon too the response was similar. Additional Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh who has been given charge of overseeing the district's sexual harassment committee, called Local Complaints Committee (LCC) says he barely receives any complaints. The LCC has heard only two to three complaints in the past year or so. In Haryana too, the government departments depend on self-compliance reports by the companies.
The higher the stakes for India's garment industry, the tougher the balance between efficiency and humane work practices.
For women like Geeta, Navita or Ratna - who come from backgrounds of deprivation - it offers a livelihood. But it can also, on more than one occasion, reduce them to tears.
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