Factories are the tip of the iceberg

From the beginning of her career, as Director of the Delhi-based International Resources for Fair Trade until today, Vinita's focus has been on the workers that are virtually invisible in the supply chain.

92 percent of garment industry workers are in the informal sector.

"Most companies now have well-developed strategies and systems for assessing working conditions in factories" she says. "But factories are the tip of the iceberg. In India, as many as 92 percent of garment industry workers are in the informal sector - either working at home or in small subcontracted units, and not protected under any law. These workers - the vast majority of the workforce - often suffer the worst conditions."

Vinita has seen a change in the whole approach to ethical trade over the past ten years. "It all used to be quite unorganised and innovative" she says, as campaigners tried to work out new approaches and solutions. She recognises that there has been huge progress in developing systems for assessing working conditions in factories, and that there has been progress in improving workers' conditions in many factories.

However, Vinita is keen to remind us that "at the heart of the matter, beyond this new language of labour codes and ethical trade, and the systems that have been developed, we are talking about people's lives". In the future, she wants to see an approach to ethical trade that puts the worker at the heart of everything. "We need to work with our hearts as well as our heads", she says.

Consumers need to be educated

Consumers need to understand the impact that the product they have bought has had on a person's life.

In the next decade, Vinita feels there is a huge need to educate consumers, so that they understand the story of the worker. She says:

The consumer needs to understand the impact that the product they have bought has had on a person's life - or rather, the lives of the 10, 20, 30 or 40 people who were involved in making it.

She hopes businesses will become more open and transparent about their ethical trade strategies, and improve their communication with consumers.

Vinita says she has been inspired by the stories of some of the homeworkers she has met in her work as advisor to the ETI-supported National Homeworker Group in Delhi, set up to improve the lives of homeworkers across India, focusing initially on the district of Bareilly, Uttar Pradhesh.

She describes meeting one woman in particular, a Bareilly-based homeworker called Praveen, who has assumed a leading role in her community after learning about her rights as a worker from the Bareilly Homeworker Group. She has started organising meetings of women homeworkers from her village and now speaks with great clarity about their right to insurance, medical care and other issues that are important to them.

Speaking to Praveen was ‘completely special', Vinita remembers. "Praveen has become aware of what is right and just, and is now so clued up she wants to spread her knowledge to other people. This thing will now have a life of its own and this woman will make sure she gets what she deserves. It was just so wonderful to see our work having an impact and women like this stepping up and taking on the mantle of leaders."