While Chittoor district is ramping up its preparedness to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, uninterrupted operations at two garment factories at the Kuppam industrial estate are causing disquiet among locals.
The garment factories employ over 5,000 women, who work in two shifts. The factories begin operations at dawn and close late in the evening. Women from nearby villages of Kuppam, Gudupalle and Shantipuram mandals are employed here. Hundreds of women from the rural side come to work in auto-rickshaws and local buses.
Prior to the COVID-19 scare, there was wide appreciation for the garment units as they were seen as an example of women empowerment. However, the tables have turned, and these same units are now being treated with suspicion, and locals are apprehensive of coming into contact with the women workers.
Police personnel at Kuppam said that the locals did not really consider the garment units to be a threat until a fortnight ago.
“The current situation looks really serious. The women, hailing from impoverished rural sectors, eke out their livelihood working hard in shifts to support their families. But the situation is looking grim now and it is better that the units shut down temporarily,” a constable said.
Batches of women from several villages travel in auto-rickshaws to the garment factories and back. Auto-rickshaws crammed with 12-15 women passengers is a regular sight in these parts. While availing their leave or weekly offs, the women along with their families would go to visit their relatives at neighboring villages along the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka borders.
It is observed that though the garment units provide all the workers with sterilised masks at the workstations, the women leave the masks there while signing off for the day, putting themselves at risk of contracting the virus.
Srinivasulu, who lives close to a garment industry on the Tirupattur-Kuppam road, said that the post of the constituency-level official of the labour department had been vacant for the last couple of years in Kuppam. “There is absolutely no official machinery to monitor the prevailing conditions in Kuppam as far as the garment units are concerned,” he said.
Women workers said that it would be not possible for them to miss work for more than a day or two, as they are totally dependent on the job to support their families. “We do follow safety measures, but we cannot avoid travelling in crowded vehicles. We agree that there is an urgent need to sanitise the vehicles that we travel in. We will be happy if someone sponsors masks for us,” said a 20-year-old girl from Kuppam who works at one of the garment factories.
