Teen worker’s death puts Indian spinning mills under new scrutiny

India’s mills supply fabric and clothes to fashion’s biggest labels and employ poor and illiterate workers, who say they deal with daily harassment and bad conditions. The 14-year-old girl died after working while sick to get her bonus

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An employee sorts pieces of cloth in a garment factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Photo: Reuters/Mansi Thapliyal

Published: 10:47am, 8 Oct 2017Updated: 10:47am, 8 Oct 2017

The death of a 14-year-old girl, who went to work for a bonus despite suffering from pneumonia, has renewed scrutiny of Indian spinning mills that supply the world’s big fashion brands.

Although N. Kalaiyarasi was taken to hospital on Saturday, she returned to work on Sunday so as not to forfeit her 2,700 rupee (US$41.30) bonus, which is paid to workers for the Diwali festival, a union report said.

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“The death could have been prevented,” said Thivyarakhini Sesuraj, an adviser to the all-women Tamilnadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU) which produced the fact-finding report, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Making a bonus conditional is not acceptable. The girls are already paid less. The bonus is technically their right.”

A textile worker threads an embroidery machine. Photo: AFP

India is one of the world’s largest textile and garment manufacturers, supplying local and international markets.

Some 1,600 spinning mills in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state employ an estimated 400,000 people to turn cotton into yarn, fabric and clothes.