Enhancing the dignity of female apparel employees

By Deepika Gunasekera

The Sri Lankan apparel industry brings substantial revenue to the country’s economy whilst providing direct employment to approximately one third of the manufacturing sector labour force, most of whom are female employees.

The apparel industry also contributes immensely to the sustenance of the Sri Lankan economy. Interestingly, all the governments which came to power used the apparel industry as a means to come to power promising to reduce unemployment by creating new factories and thereby new jobs. It is evident that the apparel sector plays a pivotal role in the economy and the politics of Sri Lanka.

However though the industry has come a long way, if you look at the last few years the dignity and the image of the garment factory employees’ especially the young female employees have not been protected or secured up to date.

The young female factory staff continued to be looked down upon by the public and harassed by indisciplined youth of this country. In some areas the female employees find it difficult to go on the roads after night falls.

It’s high time that the relevant authorities take some action to protect and build the image of this valuable asset of our country.
Even though the apparel industry as a sector has an organized body to lobby for certain concessions and privileges from the government, has the image of these employees changed and empowered during the last decade? It’s a sad story when it comes to these young and beautiful Sri Lankan lasses, the future mothers of Sri Lanka.

As a result of the unfortunate situation, a new trend has come into effect: Apparel industry staff especially the females vacate their posts and go abroad as housemaids looking for so called greener pastures, and ultimately end up in a far worse situation than they were previously in. Have the successive governments, employers and we as a society done enough to bring dignity to this ever so important sector of our labour force? As a solution to this burning problem initially the designations of the staff has to be changed. Instead of calling them Juki Machine operators a better dignified designation should be created. Furthermore, a national PR campaign to boost the image of our own apparel sector employees whilst changing the attitude of the public should be launched with the help of the government authorities and the apparel sector management. Though it will take time to see the results of this campaign the end result will be really worth waiting for.

Then only can we really be happy and content that we have implemented a corporate social responsibility project in a successful manner to serve our community.