Introduction:Working women face problems just by virtue of their being women. Working women are referred to those who are in paid employment. Social attitude to the role of women lags much behind the law. Working women have to carry the extra load of work physically and psychologically. In spite of all hindrance, woman is fully aware of the situational demand for work and she is motivated to work for the improvement of herself, her family and ultimately her country. The Indian garment industry exhibits a significant growth
potential in the global market with its advantages in low production costs, abundant resources of raw material, and unskilled / skilled labor forces.
The textiles and apparel industry is India’s second largest industry. However, with an increased level of competition from low cost manufacturers around the world like China, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa, the industry is under tremendous pressure to increase productivity, to improve performance, to improve production quality, and to advance the management systems. Furthermore, competition is much more intense in the textiles and apparel export business after the quota cancellation (Clark, 2005). Therefore, it has become crucial for garment manufacturers to respond to the new challenges with new strategies and solutions. In the intensified competition in the global market, it has become important for manufacturers to thrive to gain sustainable competitive advantage by innovations in technology or concepts as well as in production. The garment manufacturing industry is highly labor-intensive and production oriented and production involves a great deal of manually operated machine work.
The study explores the role of women in apparel sector. Women constitute a majority of the garment workers. The studies reveal that it is common to find the Gender discrimination amongst the workers of the apparel industry. Gender discrimination is unfavorable treatment based on prejudice regarding sex. In economic terms, gender discrimination is of two types, occupational and wage, related. If women are excluded from high level jobs, discrimination is of the first type. If men and women do the same job and women are paid less, it is of the second type. In most cases, gender discrimination in occupation starts from the assum that some jobs are suitable for men. Division of jobs into these two categories could take two forms: Vertical and horizontal. Both the types exist in the garment industry.
Vertical exists when men are assigned jobs at the top of the occupational ladder and women cluster at the bottom or in the lower grades. While men initially assigned lower position have opportunities of rising in the occupational ladder, such opportunities are denied, in general, to women. In fact, they often slide down in the occupational ladder due to victimization by employers. Horizontal division is another important form of gender discrimination existing in the labor market, particularly in the unorganized manufacturing sector. When women and men are recruited to different types of jobs on gender basis, it is a case of horizontal segregation. The present study explores the status of women in apparel industry.
Methodology: The locale of the present study was confined to the apparel export houses, Jaipur city.
1. Locale of the study: The locale of the present study was confined to the apparel export houses, Jaipur city.
2. Selection of the sample: The sample population for the survey was consisted of 75 apparel export houses. The export houses were randomly selected.
3. Selection of the method: In order to collect the data Interview Schedule was used.
4. Development of research instrument: The schedule was prepared to get the data on the status of labor working in apparel industries The schedule had questions related to the related to the workers and their working conditions.
Collection of data: The respondents were interviewed individually with the help of schedule. The questions were verbally asked by the investigator herself and responses wer noted down in the interview schedule. The purpose of the study was explained to the respondents in order to satisfy their desire and to have good results.
Coding: The data from the interview schedule was transferred on to the coding sheet by assigning numerals to the data to facilitate tabulation and analysis.
Tabulations: The data was transferred on to the coding sheets. Tabulation was done to arrange the data in the form of table.
Analysis: Collected data was analyzed to express the complex, big and scattered information into simple, clear logical and graphical form.
Results & Discussions
The study reveals that only the male worker are involved in the administration & supervision, pattern making, cutting and stitching department. In the finishing section, both female (66%) and male (34%) are found.
The data of the above study also reveals that in apparel sector both male and female are employed but the number of male workers is higher than female workers. Most of the technical work like pattern making, cutting, stitching and ironing is done only by the male workers. Female workers are assigned mainly the non-technical work or they assist the other work. In the finishing section the women mainly work as thread cutter or a checker.
Wide differences exist in the nature of work and the pattern of employment between the male and female workers in export-oriented units. The production process consists of a large number of different activities and each activity is entrusted with a specific group of workers. Different sections of work such as checking of raw materials, pattern making, cutting, stitching, embroidery, padding, buttoning, labeling, thread cutting, final checking, ironing, packing, and sealing constitute the different activities. Only men are employed as machine operators, (in the task of stitching). Most of the males are employed in higher category jobs such as cutting, supervision and in activities such as buttoning, labeling, and packing.
Literature also reveals that men dominate in administrative and management level jobs (Kabeer, 1991). Women are mainly absorbed in variety of occupations from checking to thread cutting. Results also reveal that no female is a pattern maker, cutter, tailor and ironer. The women are appointed as thread cutter and helper which are categorized as low category jobs.
Job discrimination on gender basis is most pronounced in the export oriented units. Such stereotypes are found to exist in the garment industries. Our findings are in conformity with several studies. Gender discrimination practiced in the unorganized sector was noticed by Agarwal (1992), Banerjee (1988, 1991), Baud (1991), Dholaki (1990), Ela Bhatt (1987),Husain (1991), Kalpagam (1993), Kulkarni (1993), Kumud Pore (1991), Nigam (1992), and Shaw (1994).
The study reveals that the salary of high category jobs range from Rs 8,000 to 25,000. Amongst the lower grade category the salary ranged from Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000. Though the government sets minimum wages for categories of workers but often female helpers are discriminated in terms of wage levels. It was observed that the female workers are paid less than their male counter parts.
The minimum wages in Delhi are highest in the country with wages of unskilled workers at Rs 203/- per day from the earlier Rs 163/- , for semi skilled laborers it is Rs 225/- per day while skilled workers will get Rs 248 per day. The monthly package would be hiked to Rs 5,272 (unskilled) Rs, 5,850 (semi skilled) and Rs 6,448 for skilled workers (Team Stitch World, 2010).
The Women are paid lower wages than men for the same tasks performed. This wage disparity between men and women with equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions is evidence of severe gender discrimination in the industry. For the same type and amount of females, the earnings of females is only 70% of the male earnings In the checking and supervising sections, the payment for men varies between Rs 4,000-Rs 5,000 and for of women the range is Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 per month.
Literature reveals that while 65 percent of men get time-rate payment and non-wage benefits, only 30 percent of women get them. Of the women who get 10 percent are paid on day-wage basis. Women workers are quite conscious of the discrimination; this is because of problems of mobility and lack of alternative employment opportunities for them. The above data clearly states that gender bias exist for the work distribution of male and female workers.
Conclusion: The evidence on wages presented in this paper shows that the wages paid to women were much lower than the minimum wages. An important reason is that women did not stay in the industry long enough to gain skills and experience to receive higher wages and salaries. Women leave the industry early due to gender-based discrimination practiced in the industry. Introduction of time-based wages in urgently needed to promote gender equality in the industry.
