Improved Social Standards in the Indian Ready-Made Garment Sector

Lead Partner: Social Accountability International (SAI)
Project Partners: Gap Inc., Timberland
Project Location: India (New Delhi, Tirupur)

Project Description

This project aims to improve working conditions for (home)workers, and reduce discrimination on the basis of gender or caste in the Indian ready-made garment sector supplying the UK market. Activities will focus on suppliers and subcontractors who employ or subcontract to these (home) workers, and include the participation from global retailers— Gap Inc. and Timberland— who will engage a select group of their suppliers based in India. Additionally, the project will work in cooperation with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) UK, along with its grassroots partner the National Home Workers Group (NHG) in New Delhi, and SAI’s collaboration in a large-scale public-private partnership (PPP). The proposed project locations include New Delhi and Tirupur.

Project activities include

• develop and test training tools materials in over 100 Indian factories about home worker and discrimination issues and management systems designed to assure decent work
• build local training capacity through a ‘training-of-trainer’ strategy to train and qualify 30 local trainers to deliver both advanced and elementary courses
• increase worker and manager skills and awareness of rights by having the 30 qualified local trainers to work with 100 factories
• produce auditor guidance and convene multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue meetings.

Upon successful implementation of the above, the expected outputs/outcomes are:

• 270 factory managers and supervisors at 100 factories will be better able to recognize responsibilities in subcontracting to homeworkers and lessen workplace discrimination and vis-à-vis homeworkers and other subcontractors
• 33,500 factory workers and 33,500 homeworkers will have better access to claiming their rights
• Worker representatives trained on anti-discrimination will be better able to support their peers in exercising their rights and, as appropriate, participate in grievance processes

SAI, leveraging the collaboration with ETI, partnerships with companies, and the investments of the GIZ-funded PPP, will reach hundreds of additional factories and thousands of (home)workers. Participating companies will support project implementation (and possibly extend the trainings to other suppliers in India), send sourcing staff to trainings, and will promote the methodology as a best practice to their peers.