Globalization, Gender and Poverty: Women Workers in Garment Industry in Karnataka Region of India

Globalization in India and elsewhere has led to the emergence of number of industries in general and garment industry in particular. Besides having direct impact on the consumers in terms of manufacturing, in Indian industrial development, they are also seemed to be assisting the needs of the industries in terms of providing them with the packing material. It enables them to play an extremely larger role in the Indian economy and provide employment opportunities to much of the Indian women population. Since the introduction of liberalization policies introduced in India 1991, there has been considerable growth of export earnings through the garment Industry in India. In Karnataka many textile policies were adopted since 1993 which has enabled growth of job opportunities for women in garment industry. The number of women employees in state wide is more than three lakhs out of which more than two and half lakhs women employees are located in Bangalore city units. An attempt is made in this paper to analyse the socio-economic status of women workers in garment industry and their working conditions. The garment industry in the state of Karnataka of India particularly Bangalore city employees bulk of the women working force. Based on empirical evidences this paper sheds a gender perspective on functioning of garment industry in Bangalore to point out the absurd effects on women workers by exploring the poverty implications of this new form of employment by analyzing the socio-economic backgrounds, working conditions and wage disparity in garment industry of India. With regard to the problems, sexual harassment of women workers was a rare phenomenon at the work place as there were no rape or molestation cases. In many cases extra marital relations were noticed with co-workers or supervisors. This could be in retaliation against the habit and poverty of families.