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Dabindu Collective collective and its work with women workers in Free Trade Zone of Sri Lanka | Waruni Karunarathne

17 November 2015

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The Sunday Leader (Sri Lanka) 15 November 2015

Labouring To Create Awareness Among Battered Women

by Waruni Karunarathne

Despite the vital role women play in the country’s social and economic fabric, the women, especially who provide labour, are a neglected entity. They are often exploited and their rights are systematically denied. Mostly, women who work in Free Trade Zones (FTZs) face numerous challenges and risks in and out of the workplace where they are deprived of their labour rights, freedom of association and are subjected to various abuses, harassments, and sexual violence.

Chamila Thushari has dedicated her time to give a voice to these voiceless women in the FTZ who are deprived of their rights in an oppressive work environment. She now works as the Programme Coordinator of the Dabindu Collective, an organisation formed in 1984 to speak on behalf of the oppressed women who provide labour in the FTZs. Her mother, H. I. Samanmalee, was a founding member of the Dabindu Collective who had worked with it since its inception. Her father had also been a social rights activist who organised labour unions to help workers speak up for their rights and stand up in unison.

“Being social rights activists, my family faced a lot of risks. During the upheaval in 1989, the legal advisor who worked alongside my father was killed. My brother was about to sit for his A/Levels, and I was reading for my A/Levels. With everything that was going around, we had to live in hiding and our family lived scattered for awhile. My parents’ dedication, determination, and commitment as activists gave me strength I needed to follow their footstep,†she said.

Chamila, who learnt the art of social work and activism from her mother and father, joined the Dambidu Collective officially in 1994 and has been working there ever since, giving a voice to these marginalised segment of women – an essential part of the country’s labour force.

“There is no end to the grievances of women in the FTZ. The garment industry driven by the FTZ is the second highest foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka, but sadly, in the FTZ, the labour rights of the workers are constantly being violated. These women also lack awareness of their rights and labour rights. They earn low-wages and are exploited to the maximum whereas the investors reap about 70 per cent to 75 per cent profit from these labourers’ hard work. The labour provided by those women is unrecognised and is not been given a proper value,†she pointed out.

“According to the Department of Census and Statistics, a family of four needs at least Rs. 51,000 per month, but the workers in the FTZ earn about Rs.17,000 to Rs. 20,000 monthly after labouring about 12 to 14 hours per day – which is hardly sufficient to cover the cost of living. FTZ workers have lot of hidden expenses which include payments for rent, food, and transport. These workers suffer from utmost poverty and lack proper nutrition as they cannot even afford a balanced meal. A survey conducted by the Department of Labour in 2009 revealed that 60 per cent of the workers in the FTZ suffer from Anaemia,†she pointed out. According to Chamila, the room for these women to get organised and form trade unions is also systematically blocked. At the same time, according to her, these women are also reluctant to come out of their shells because they fear getting fired.

Chamila Thushari

Chamila added that the owners of the garments also prefer keeping these workers in ignorance and not letting them get involved in organisations like the Dambidu Collective. “When the workers are isolated that is easy for the owners to make maximum use of the workers and ignore their rights. When trade union activities were banned, getting these workers organised has been a hard task. Despite these challenges, we work at the national level and bring people together,†she said.

The Dabindu Collective started in the Katunayaka and in Biyagama FTZs, but the Biyagama Branch became dysfunctional in 2003 due to lack of funds. However, Chamila added that at the national level, they give the workers in the FTZ access to report instances of violating their rights. The Dabindu Collective publishes a magazine titled Dabindu that gives voice to the issues of the workers and calls upon the relevant stakeholders to protect the workers’ rights.

Through the Dabindu Collective, Chamila has been building awareness of women’s rights, labour rights, reproductive health, and reproductive rights etc amongst the female workers in the FTZ. while organising them to get their right to form trade unions. “These workers in the FTZ are internal migrants – mostly those who come from agricultural villages. Even though there are certain laws to protect them, they have no knowledge of labour rights, and the rights recognised internationally by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Most of them cannot even read their payslips. They are vulnerable and can easily be exploited.

Despite the fact that this is a democratic country, these women work like slaves. Women’s participation in trade unions is alarmingly low.

Besides, the exiting few are also highly male dominant and patriarchal. Therefore, women are not inclined to take part in the meetings and activities,†she said. According to Chamila, these internal migrants work constantly in shifts in the FTZ as they go to their villages after a period of time, there is always a new set of workers. On the other hand, they tend to work up to only five years to get their gratuity as their daily targets are becoming increasingly high and their pay is very low.

She added that in order to fill these vacancies, there is now a trend of recruiting minors in the age group of 16 to 18. “This has created a whole new level of issues. These young girls live away from home and enter into various kinds of love affairs or at times are abused sexually or exploited.

There is a huge tendency of minors getting pregnant which is a serious issue. In general, there are many instances of women in the FTZ having unwanted pregnancy. They lack knowledge of family planning and reproductive health,†she pointed out.

“When my mother and the group of others started the Dabindu Collective, things were very difficult. Initially it was difficult for us to even distribute a leaflet to the workers, but now we are gradually getting them organised to speak up for their rights while helping them to stand up for themselves – the situation is a lot improved when looking back and realising how difficult it has been for us to get them organised,†Chamila noted.

Chamila also highlighted the issue about many labourers finding work through Manpower Agencies. “They have no job security. They do not have regular work hours or regular work place. They are paid low wages compared to permanent workers and every day, their labour rights are being violated,†she pointed out.

Speaking of this deprived and marginalized segment of the society, Chamila stressed the need to give them proper political representation in order to give their issues prominence – and if given the opportunity, she said she would love to come forward to give a voice to their issues and bring about much needed social justice to these people. She noted the lack of women in law making bodies which could be one reason that these issues of women are not been given prominence.

“We only have 13 women in parliament, and the women’s representation in the provincial and local government is also alarmingly low. This explains the reason why there is a lack of concentration on women’s issues and gender sensitive policies.

If given the opportunity, I will contest the upcoming local government election and give these women as well as the working community a proper political representation at least at the local government level,†she said determinedly.

She, however, added that if she intends to get elected and gets the work done, she will have to seek nomination through a well established political party as contesting independently might make it difficult for her to win – and the real challenge would be to obtain nomination from a political party as most of them have male chauvinistic ideologies, and the exiting political culture is violent and discouraging women to come into politics.

P.S.

The above article from The Sunday Leader is reproduced here for educational and non commercial use