17/01/2020
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The materials we wear on our bodies have a profound social impact on the people in the fashion supply chain. In Tamil Nadu, the Indian capital of cotton production, demand for cheap cotton from big brands has vast consequences for the hundreds of thousands of workers turning the raw cotton fibre into finished textile. The area has become a hub of child labour and poor working conditions, where workers are recruited from rural areas with promises of decent work.
A SOMO report writes, “Recruiters convince parents in impoverished rural areas to send their daughters to the spinning mills with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling, as well as a lump sum payment at the end of three years. However, when the girls arrive at the mills, it turns out that the reality of their new working life is not so attractive.”
The prevalence of this reality in South Indian spinning mills relies on brands’ lack of transparency beyond the first tier of the supply chain. In our 2019 Fashion Transparency Index, we found just 27.5% of brands investigated published their processing facilities (tier 2). Without the knowledge of where brands obtain their fabrics, little can be done to protect the vulnerable workers in these facilities.
We must demand a fashion industry with as much visibility of the supply chain, as of the clothes on the runways. Let’s ask and demand that brands publish not only their factory lists, but every tier of their supply chains.
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