Fashion’s unseen stories: the homeworkers of Tirupur – in pictures

Faced with the challenges of raising children, looking after a house and earning a living, thousands of women employed in Tamil Nadu’s textile industry choose to work from home. But because home-based work is not regulated, workers are not entitled to sick pay, maternity leave or a pension. Most workers, often from poorer communities, are typically employed by subcontractors and paid a piece rate depending on the work. They can earn anything from 90 rupees (about 90p) to more than 300 rupees a day. Some people have set up small factories in their homes or nearby.

This photo was taken by Sathya, 34, who lives with her husband and two children in Tirupur and has been a homeworker for 11 years. ‘The lady sewing in the background is older, and because of her age she gets only 200 rupees today, whereas others get 250. When I hear such stories I worry for my own future. Normally, I’d not talk about these things – just chat – but because I had the camera she was more willing to talk to me. It helped that the company owner wasn’t there too, so we were more free to speak.’

Kamalam, 47, took this photo of her neighbour threading a drawstring through a pair of shorts. ‘This kind of work is common in Tirupur,’ she says, but ‘the repeated actions become painful – a lot of the work homeworkers do is painful’. Originally from Kerala, Kamalam is the vice-president of the Anukatham union, which is fighting for formal recognition for homeworkers, and a minimum wage. About 40,000 women are members of the union.

‘This is a room in someone’s house, close to my home. It’s a small place where four to five women work. The woman in pink is a helper,’ says Selvarani, 50, who lives with her 11-year-old grandson. She came to Tirupur 22 years ago and learned how to tailor clothes and crochet.

‘When I took this photo, this woman’s helper had not showed up, so she was having to do two jobs,’ says Selvarani. ‘This will slow her down, and mean she’s paid less overall.’ The average monthly wage for a homeworker in Tirupur is 5,600 rupees, compared with the average monthly wage in India which is 31,900 rupees (£308).

Sathya took this photo of Santhanam, a helper who ‘works six days a week from 9am to 8.30pm for 390 rupees a day’. She says: ‘Working as a helper is a difficult job, she has to do cutting, folding and packing work. She is not compensated fairly for the amount of work she’s doing.‘If she did the same work in an export company she’d be paid more, but since she has two young children and the unit is next to her home, she is working here.’

Sathya says this woman, threading elastic through an item of children’s clothing, sits in her doorway so ‘she doesn’t need to use the electric light’.

Older women are usually given the job of preparing cones used to wind thread, says Suriya, 44, who lives with her husband and 22-year-old daughter. She worked in a factory for three years before her daughter was born, but then started working from home. ‘If this woman works from morning until evening, she will get just 200 rupees. It’s not easy work. This woman has been doing this work for a long time.’

‘This is my favourite photo. It’s of my bag,’ says Kalavani, 47, who lives with her mother. She has worked from home in the textile industry for 16 years. ‘I liked the way it looked on the pile of rags.’

‘I liked the colours and shape of these finished product bundles. These will then be packed, labelled and boxed,’ says Kamalam. She worries about money, because homeworking is not regular and wages have not increased to keep pace with the rise in the cost of living.

‘We have to separate these waste fabric products by colour,’ says Kalavani. ‘They go to the automobile industry as rags. Sitting on the tarpaulin is hot and uncomfortable, and causes back pain. ‘We use a tool that is sharp and pricks the fingers, so we wrap our hands in cloth to protect them. In older people, you can see the damage that the constant pricking of the needle has caused to their fingers.’

These large cotton bales will be cut, dyed and stitched. ‘It goes to the factories which dye fabrics – it’s export quality, so I don’t know what happens to it afterwards,’ says Kalavani.

Kamalam says this 80-year-old woman sits next to the temple near her house. She cuts pieces of waste cloth into strips which are then made into cleaning mops. ‘She gets 30 rupees for a kilo of waste, and earns about 90 rupees a day,’ says Kamalam. ‘It is difficult for older people in this industry. No one wants to hire you but you have to earn to make a living as there is no pension or any other welfare schemes to support us.’

Sathya says when she took this photo, the contractor, who delivers the fabric to the homeworkers, was there. ‘The woman was being trained and the contractor was telling her, “You will have to work faster than that or you won’t make any money.”’

Selvarani, pictured, says: ‘ I found taking photos interesting. I’d like to take more. If homeworkers get recognised, that will change things for me – it will be better. I didn’t join the project with that intention though – I used to be a social worker so I came at it from that angle, though the help with the demand for recognition is a plus.’

Annalakshmi, a grandmother, is packing finished pieces of clothing. She gets paid 30 paise, less than 1 rupee, for each finished garment, says Kamalam. ‘Even though the garment industry is exploitative and underpays all of us, it provides so many different kinds of job opportunities.’