The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Sewing together a life between travel and work

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Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Sewing together a life between travel and work

Bageshree S.

10 per cent of the over four lakh garment workers travel to and from Bangalore every day

Lack of job opportunities in villages driving women to take up work in Bangalore
The women earn about Rs. 2,500 a month

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Braving all odds: Garment factory workers on their way to their workplace, waiting to catch a train at Yeshwantpur railway station.

Bangalore: A visitor to the Yeshwantpur railway station early in the morning on any working day will encounter a motley crowd of about 200 women lost in a flurry of activity. Combing their hair, dabbing powder on their faces, adjusting their saris, picking an argument with the passing tea vendor on the weak brew, downing breakfast as they indulge in a banter with the rest room attendant, the young women are clearly in a hurry.

These are women who travel every day from the villages around Bangalore to work in garment factories in the city. It is hard for anyone watching the vivacious crowd get ready for work to guess that their days are an endless cycle of work, which leaves them barely four hours to catch up with sleep.

Nagalakshmi K.N., who comes from Tumkur, says her day begins at 3 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m. The travel time, eight hours of scheduled work, overtime work and household chores add up to nearly 20 hours. Does this routine not affect her health? Her sister, Rangamma, who travels with her on Rani Chennamma Express, shoots back: “Can you tell a hungry stomach to wait till you are done with sleep?”

Lakshmamma Siddagangiah and Nagaratna, who board Hospet Express from Doddabele in Nelamangala taluk at 4.30 a.m., say that they cook, clean, pack breakfast and lunch for themselves and their children before leaving home. It is 8.30 p.m. by the time they return home. “We get time to wash clothes only on Sundays,” says Ms. Nagaratna. They can leave a little later if they take a bus or tempo, but that costs between Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 as against the train fare of Rs. 7.

Renuka C.M., who comes from a village near Maddur on the Mysore-Bangalore Push-Pull train to a factory on Mysore Road, considers herself “lucky” because she boards the train only at 7.15 a.m. It brings her to the Nayandanahalli station just in time for work. But she has a long wait to catch the train back home and she spends time evenings on the platform cleaning and cutting vegetables for night’s cooking.

What drives these women — some of whom have never gone to school, and others who have studied up to PU — to travel long distances to earn about Rs. 2,500 a month? Lack of adequate job opportunities in their villages and towns and the growing agrarian crisis are among the prime reasons.

Lakshmi P., whose family owns 1.5 acres of land near Doddabele, says that agriculture hardly pays. They have also shifted from “unproductive” ragi and rice to eucalyptus plantation, which is not as labour intensive. Uma, her friend, comes from a family of agricultural labourers. “As a coolie you earn Rs. 50 a day and you do not get work every day. There is no work at all in summer.” Manjula S.K. adds matter-of-factly that there are always debts to be paid and drunkard husbands to think of.

According to Mary Violet of the Garment Mahila Karmikara Munnade, an estimated 10 per cent of workers among the over 4 lakh garment workers in Bangalore travel to and from the city every day. While those who work in Yeshwantpur area largely come from villages around Tumkur and Nelamangala, factories on Mysore Road attract workers from Srirangapatna, Maddur, Chennapatna and Ramanagara taluks. Many of them travel by train, while a handful companies have now hired buses to transport them because of their growing numbers. There is an equally large crowd coming from KGF and Hosur.

Most of these women seem to take hardship in their stride and do not complain unless probed. Ramalakshmi from Tarsighatta near Nelamangala, who has worked for 14 years without any promotion or recognition, says that the garment industry has “taught her to deal with the world,” even as she says that years of sewing buttons on shirts has taken a toll on her health. “I will work as long as I can. The rest, who can ever tell?” she asks philosophically.

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